Hourglass
by Pastrinator64
Summary: In a world cast deep into despair and chaos, a small band of surviving heroes shall unite to save the entire universe and its infinite dimensions—among them, Norman Cobweb. Returning to Minecraftia, Norman must travel across treacherous lands in order to seek out and return the final three Spirits In Between. But, with the Glitch at the height of its power, will they still prevail?
1. Ch 1: Nostalgia

**HEYYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOO! This is Pastrinator64 with the very first chapter to **_**Hourglass,**_** the long-awaited triquel to finish this series! It is good to be back, everyone! Procrastination, relationships, and school have all gotten in my way, but now I'm finally here!**

**First, I'd like to thank all of you who've stuck with me since the beginning when **_**The Glitch **_** or **_**VOiD **_**came out, even through those awkward and slow times. Your support is my creative writing fuel. :D**

**Secondly, I will be accepting OC's for this story. Your original character must have a block power as everyone else does in the series. Examples: Norman **_**Cobweb,**_** Lizzy **_**Cake,**_** Jeff **_**Ironblock,**_** etc. Just slap the name of the block on as a last name. Pick any block you like as a block power, and I greatly encourage you to use technical blocks if you feel like it, such as **_**unlit redstone torch**_** or **_**farmland.**_** Here are the minimum guidelines:**

_**Name**_

_**Gender**_

_**Height**_

_**Weight**_

_**Physical Appearance**_

_**Personality Traits**_

_**Strength(s)**_

_**Weakness(es)**_

_**Weapon of Choice**_

_**Other Notes You Would Like To Add About This Person**_

**That last one is optional. ATTENTION: I WILL LET YOU KNOW WHEN I AM ACCEPTING OC'S AND WHEN I AM NOT. Thanks, it's just that sometimes people ignore that message and hurl in a couple billion OC's at random.**

**Thirdly, I will be adding bits and pieces of the bonus chapter from before to let that side-story progress slowly. Each snippet will be featured at the end of each chapter, so read on!**

**Fourthly, I encourage you to ask questions to the characters such as before in **_**VOiD. **_**Here are the minimum guidelines:**

_**To: (insert character name)**_

_**Question: (insert question)**_

**Ask away! I'll answer any question that you throw at me.**

**Finally, I would like to add that I will be answering any regular non-character-question reviews at the beginning of each chapter, so if you have any comments, notes, or questions about the story or about me, feel free to put them into review form. Thanks! :)**

**Well, now that I'm done with all the explanation, I guess it's time to move on with the story! Grab your popcorn, soda and pickled garlic, because here comes **_**Hourglass!**_

* * *

_Chapter 1: Nostalgia_

Sitting in the muddied grass were five graves, each eroded by the winds of many years that were now lost in time. Still, though the engravings were no longer legible, Norman knew clearly who they belonged to. Bittersweet memories invaded his mind, clear as crystal, as he let his eyes gaze at each of the seemingly ancient stones.

Beneath the first grave was a man whom he knew all his life as the wisest person alive, someone who gave him much of his current knowledge and understanding, but was now a member of the deceased. Although he had accepted his evident death, he preferred to remain in the moment, doing everything he could to improve the life of himself and of those around him. It was too sudden of a shock when he died.

The second grave held a familiar individual of great beauty. She was once a young, ambitious woman, one who kept everyone from giving up. No matter how much hope had been squashed out of his companions and allies, this woman kept her head held high and her teammates alive with optimism. However, she was still one of many who joined the saints in Heaven.

The third sat atop of the man who he considered to be his greatest friend. Unlike many of the companionships he once had, this man did not decide to end theirs in betrayal. His loyalty failed to waver, remaining true and pure and without fail, letting him maintain a relationship that was not sugar-coated and deceitful like his many others. Still, this man's fate ended in gruesome death such as the others.

The fourth grave marked where one of Mark's greatest friends had been put down to rest for eternity. At first, he did not know her well, but as their mission progressed, he and the girl became close. She had one of the kindest souls of any person he'd met, though her soul was taken away like all the others.

Finally, there was the fifth grave. There were many choice words for the person that lay peacefully beneath the hardened soil. He could pick thousands upon thousands, because he knew her more than anyone; out of all the people he met in his lifetime, she was the one who he grew closest to, the one that he had bound his heart with. This grave belonged to his one and only wife, the love of his life, and his angelic soul mate.

In remembrance of these fallen heroes, Norman removed his cap and lowered his head. Two teardrops fell from his cheeks as a flow of quiet and raspy words escaped his wizened lips.

"In life or in death, I humble myself. My achievements were nothing compared to those that I have seen from you. I take into account what the past once held and that it is forever lost, that the present is soon to end along with its momentary bliss, and that the future's prolonging wonders will be unearthed in only a matter of time, free of any evil that once plagued our history."

He paused for a moment to collect himself. His throat tightened, making it harder for him to swallow than it already was, and he watched as the teardrops from his eyes wet the dry ground. A few seconds later he spoke just five more words.

"I will see you soon."

Then there was silence.

* * *

The air was sweet in the garden. There was the echoing chirp of the golden finch that was perched on the branch of the oak. A bit of shade fell over the face of the girl that sat beneath it, who stayed cool and comfortable. There was a light breeze that played across her skin. It was warm outside with blue skies—the perfect weather, in her opinion. She could lie there all day and night if she cared, without a worry in the world, a whole three months of summer ahead of her, and not one person to bother her.

"Hey."

Her eyes opened to see somebody in front of her, standing on the other side of the shade. She grinned upon recognizing him. Okay, she could care less if this guy bothered her, actually.

"Hey." she said back.

He walked over and sat down, lying up against the tree next to her, sharing the welcoming shadow of the oak.

"Anything on your mind?" he asked.

A small sigh escaped her lips as she closed her eyes again.

"Nah. I'm just glad to have company, I guess."

Suddenly, she felt herself lose a bit of breath; she could feel his nimble fingers weaving in between hers.

"Are you alright? You seem tense, Lovelips."

Her eyes opened a second time and she turned her head, smiling at him, the blush present in her cheeks. His head was turned for a moment, his eyes scanning the nearby pond, but as soon as he turned it back to gaze at her, their eyes locked for a moment and her face got ten times redder.

"Sorry." she murmured, glancing away.

He chuckled and said,

"What? You didn't do anything."

"Oh...alright."

"Are you sure you're okay? You really do seem very, well, on edge."

She took a slightly shaky breath and tried to think of what she would say next. She wasn't much of a talker, really, not even to him.

"I just get all jittery when you're here, I guess. That's not bad, though, because otherwise I'd just be all by my lonesome self. Good company, like I said."

There was an awkward silence as they both looked forward at the pond, observing as an array of fish swam through. They appeared to be playing tag or something of the sort. At least, this is what she was picturing, but that was merely to entertain herself until she came up with something reasonably witty to say to her boyfriend.

A sudden jolt went up her spine when she felt his bare feet stroke against hers.

"Your face is really red." he commented, a sly grin on his face.

She looked down again, embarrassed.

"You're such a tease..." she murmured, giggling.

"Can't help it! You've just got such cute feet."

It was as though her cheeks had caught fire, because her blush had somehow gotten worse. Finally, she lifted her head to look at him. He looked back, and for the first time that day his cheeks flushed instead.

"Okay, now you're blushing!" she pointed out.

"Ah, whatever. Anyway, you wanna do something together?"

A new smile spread across her face as she replied,

"We're doing it, aren't we? Here we are, sitting together under the same shade of the oak."

He shrugged, looking like he sort of didn't agree but sort of did.

"Yeah, I just figured we could be out and about, I guess."

"But sometimes isn't it good to just, y'know, slow down and just enjoy each other's company."

He shrugged again, unsure what clever thing to say. He was about to say something interesting when his words were interrupted by her lips. Stomach turning and mind fogging, he forced his eyes closed to keep in the moment. When she let go, his calm gray eyes opened and met her playful green ones. A moment later, his smile returned and he leaned back against the tree.

"Yeah...I guess you're right."

After closing her eyes once more, she rested her head up against his chest. He closed his as well, his breathing slowing down and steadying.

"I really do love you, Kelsey."

"Love you too, Mark."

* * *

Kelsey's eyes snapped open. Her breathing was not relaxed. Her head rested against the pillow of her bed and not the chest of her beloved. Her hand was empty, not intertwined with that of Mark. Then she realized that it had been a dream. She was lying in one of the many guest beds of the Palace of 0, not in a luscious garden, and this had been merely a tormenting memory.

This made her sob into her pillow.

She missed those days, those days under the shade of the oak. She missed Mark, most of all. She missed the simplicity and bliss of their relationship when they could just be together without any obstacles in their way.

Crying eventually tired her, and gradually she fell back into a fitful sleep.

* * *

Waking back up one short hour later, she rubbed her eyes, dry from the aftereffects of her tears. Her throat was dry as well. Turning her head, she scanned the dresser for her glass, which, when she looked upon it, appeared unfortunately empty. She didn't want to get up out of the comfortable bed for a drink, but her throat screamed to be quenched. Groaning, she sat up in bed and wiped her tears again, sniffing. She threw the covers off of her legs and got up out of bed, taking her empty glass and heading for the door.

She opened it quietly and slipped out of the room. Kelsey walked down the hall in spooky silence, staring at her glass, her legs moving seemingly on their own accord. She eventually reached the large kitchen, which was decked in marbled designs and creamy whitish tiles. The floor was a little cold to her toes, but she ignored the feeling and dragged herself up to the sink. She filled her glass and drank, her throat grateful for the long-awaited refreshment.

Setting down the glass, Kelsey looked through the window that was fixed just above the sink. She could see through it to the palace's wondrous garden, which looked just as the one in her dream. She gazed absentmindedly at it for a moment, skimming the surroundings. Finally, she snapped herself awake again and walked back out of the kitchen, turning left in the hallway and heading down the short walkway. A screen door in front of her was pushed aside and she let herself into the garden.

The grass wasn't cold, thankfully, and she had no trouble in making her way over to the center oak tree next to the pond. Nostalgia plagued her mind as she tried to keep all those memories from making her have another meltdown. She stopped herself underneath the tree and looked up for a moment into the leafy branches. She let her whole body slide down into a lying position, resting her head up against the trunk. Looking to her side, she saw the one thing that mattered to her most in her life.

Sort of...

A gravestone had been placed underneath this oak tree. The words imprinted into it read:

R.I.P.

Markus Cobweb

2419-2433

She sighed heavily and closed her eyes, put her arm around the grave, and attempted to regain her dream. Here she was now, with the one person whom she loved most. With her eyes closed and thoughts of peaceful times in her mind, Kelsey fell asleep beneath the oak tree, Mark alongside her.

* * *

Mark, whose heart was also broken in two, felt a suddenly sickening feeling sweep over him. He had been sitting down in the infinite darkness of his cell, which stretched in endless directions all around him. He'd been amongst the crowd in the Plasma Realm for only a small amount of time. Afterwards, he was sent into his own private chamber of neverending darkness. Each and every individual had been done to the same, but only his had been chosen to be immeasurable. It was torturous, being stuck inside of the prison of which he knew he could never escape.

Time was different in the Plasma Realm. He knew neither of what the hour was nor the day. His brain told him that it was nighttime outside of this horrid dimension, but he was unsure. He'd been sent into that prison cell just twenty-four hours ago. It was maddening, though, for in this place of shadows he was not fed or given rest, only his hunger, thirst and need for rest never appeared. It was a strange and unfamiliar change, not to have these feelings, and he certainly didn't like it.

The only thing he was given to do was think to himself, alone in his mind. This nauseating feeling came as soon as he thought of all his friends and whether they'd escaped or not. He hoped dearly that they were safe and that they hadn't perished as he had. He especially was afraid for Kelsey and his dad. The thought of either of them stuck in a pitch-black cell like his gave him shivers besides the ones he received from the cold air around him.

But still, he couldn't help but wonder about other things as well. He thought about all the other people absorbed by the Glitch. Did this mean that Lucas and Gabe were still alive? The REAL ones and not just the puppets of the Glitch and Salutem? And what about Notch, Herobrine and Queen Enderdragon? This must mean that they're all still alive along with everybody else who perished.

"_Gosh, I wish I knew for sure! I hate not knowing what's going on..." _he thought to himself.

For now, though, he had yet to realize what true horrors were in store for all to fall beneath the Glitch's wrath.

* * *

Jeff was in a state of pure sorrow at that moment.

Previously, during the Glitch's assault on the Aether Palace, Jeff had fled the scene frantically, losing a leg to a mutated aechor plant along the way, and plunged himself off of the floating fortress into the clouds below, probably to his certain death. Falling unconscious in midair, that was the last thing he remembered.

Now Jeff had woken up, apparently alive, and floating on his back in the ocean. His entire body was on fire with pain and he couldn't move his arms or legs. Here he was, adrift at sea, missing a limb, and completely without anyone to help him. In these hopeless times, Jeff would attempt to go to a happier place in his mind, but it almost never worked. This time, though, while he remained in his current state, he dozed off into a painful period of sub-consciousness.

He could see Esmeralda above him, smiling down at him with those beautifully blue eyes. Oh how he wished she were here, then maybe he'd die happily. He wouldn't die alone but instead in with her by his side. But no, she had suffered the price of death already, so there really was no person to keep him company. A minute later, Jeff could almost hear her voice calling out to him.

"Jeff, my old friend! 'Tis a wonderful surprise meeting you here!"

Even in his delirious state, Jeff felt a pang of confusion and he strained to listen. That didn't sound much like Esmeralda at all. That sounded more like a very well-fed and hearty middle-aged man with a gruff speaking voice. He knew one thing for sure, and that was that Esmeralda sounded nothing like a lumberjack.

"Good Notch! Jeff, was in the blazes happened to your leg?! Oh dear, this isn't good at all..."

He ignored the voice and just focused on Esmeralda's pretty features. He could still remember her as if they had been with each other yesterday. With these happy memories in his thoughts, Jeff fell back unconscious.

* * *

Vanessa too lay awake that night, drifting somewhere between half-asleep and fully-awake. She'd woken up four different times that night, twice around midnight and the second two times around five. Okay, four different times that MORNING, but she didn't notice the difference.

This restlessness was caused by the same as everyone else; she was having difficulties pushing lost memories out of her head. Whenever she would fall back asleep or near to it, the image of Rexum passing his soul into hers and dying away would blast behind her closed eyelids, giving her an upset stomach.

Finally, that fourth time she woke up and gazed fretfully at the clock. 5:24 in the morning was the time. She couldn't keep doing this—constantly waking up over and over again. She wasn't even getting her usual seven hours of sleep; most of the night was spent reading Cantatis in its book form.

She decided to pick up Cantatis that time and opened up to the beginning of chapter 133; this magic book, when it wasn't in the form of another magical creation, remained as _Moby Dick; _she began to read.

"_Stubb saw him pause; and perhaps intending, not vainly, though, to evince his own unabated fortitude, and thus keep up a valiant place in his Captain's mind, he advanced, and eyeing the wreck exclaimed-"The thistle the ass refused; it pricked his mouth too keenly, sir; ha! ha!"_

_"What soulless thing is this that laughs before a wreck? Man, man! did I not know thee brave as fearless fire (and as mechanical) I could swear thou wert a poltroon. Groan nor laugh should be heard before a wreck."_

_"Aye, sir," said Starbuck drawing near, "'tis a solemn sight; an omen, and an ill one."_

_"Omen? omen?-the dictionary! If the gods think to speak outright to man, they will honourably speak outright; not shake their heads, and give an old wives' darkling hint.-Begone! Ye two are the opposite poles of one thing; Starbuck is Stubb reversed, and Stubb is Starbuck; and ye two are all mankind; and Ahab stands alone among the millions of the peopled earth, nor gods nor men his neighbors! Cold, cold-I shiver!-How now? Aloft there! D'ye see him? Sing out for every spout, though he spout ten times a second!""_

Cold, cold...now she started shivering. Strange, though, for the room was perfectly warm and cozy. Vanessa instantly recognized that these shivers were not from the absent chill. Even while reading her favorite book, she couldn't keep her mind off of Rexum. Flashbacks of their training kept coming into her mind. She looked down at Cantatis and stared at it, her eyes starting to fill with tears. A quiet sob escaped her mouth as a teardrop fell onto the page.

Suddenly, without warning, Cantatis transformed on its own, turning itself into a handheld mirror of ruby red. She could see her distraught face in the mirror for only a moment, which quickly gained a confused and startled expression mix. Moments later, the mirror shifted and swirled, scattering her reflection and replacing it with a new one that made her gasp. Rexum's face appeared before her, smiling sadly up at her in silence, but not for very long.

"Vanessa, my young mage. It is superb to be speaking with you again."

A small surprised yelp came past her lips and she covered her face with her hands. Her tears increasing, she whispered croakily,

"R-Rexum...! You're...how?!"

Rexum's wrinkled face lightened up a small amount as he replied,

"Our souls have fused together, do you not remember? The power of Cantatis is being channeled into your soul so that you may use it, and therefore we are both connected through it. As long as you hold Cantatis in your hands, I will be with you wherever you travel."

Vanessa tried her hardest to not break down. It would be totally unethical as well as embarassing in front of her idol and mentor. She just had so much to tell him, she couldn't wait!

"Rexum, I have a lot of things to tell you!" she murmured excitedly.

Rexum held up his hand to silence her.

"Vanessa, you need not inform me of the current events; as I said, we have fused souls and so I am able to understand what goes on in your surroundings as well as you can. Now, the real reason I have appeared before you has much importance and you must understand completely, so please, I beg you, listen as well as you possibly can manage, for this is irrevocably imperative."

Vanessa would do anything for Rexum, so she leaned in towards the mirror and said,

"I'm all ears, Rexum."

* * *

Notch sat in his pitch-black chamber and meditated, trying to calm himself in the deathtrap of darkness that was the Plasma Realm. Many thoughts plagued his mind—thoughts of the Glitch's diabolic plans, thoughts of which of his colleagues were safe from harm, and primarily thoughts about Herobrine and Queen Enderdragon. Could they be in blackened prisons such as his? Or were they deleted from the game and now just a jumble of code in the dimension's system? For now, he was unable to tell, and it made him think about what horrid things could be happening to them if they were still alive as he was.

He hoped dearly for some information on the Glitch's unearthly intentions, or its killing records, or even just some whereabouts—anything! In the meantime, though, he was being subjected to an experience of lack of knowledge and he utterly despised it. It was mental torture for him when he didn't know about something vitally important.

Then his thoughts went back to Herobrine and Queen Enderdragon. His mind wandered off, relaying all those times spent with his fellow rulers. He would have thought more about Salutem, but he hadn't known the creature for nearly as long and he knew for a fact that Salutem had escaped the Glitch's wicked clutches. In other words, he and Salutem had very few memories spent together.

Instead, he found himself traveling back in time—the debut party for the first Minecraft, Minecraft alpha version, on May 17th, 2009, then the debut party for the huge update for Minecraft's release on December 20th, 2010; at both of which, Herobrine pranked everyone by dropping a thousand balloons filled with garlic powder from the ceiling.

"_Ah, that man was a prankster, alright." _thought Notch, reminiscing the past with a sigh and a grin.

Then he thought of Queen Enderdragon, who, when she was first added into the game, gave a wonderful first impression by breathing a fireworks display from her mouth. Fire, though, was only a temporarily suggested update before beta 1.9's update, and so the fire-breathing aspect was removed. Still, every year during the Minecraft Dimension's Minecon, she impresses all attendees with her special hand-crafted fireworks.

Good times, good times...

* * *

Most surprisingly, even the Mastermind was rather crestfallen. Despite his usually clownish personality and his mischievous mood, our familiar-faced checkered jester was sitting alone in the Clock Chamber where he could manipulate time to his liking. This room was usually used for slowing down time to fit more hours into the day for training, preparation, and various other things. Only thing was, the Mastermind wasn't using it for these purposes; he just wanted a room that was quiet.

The room itself was an endlessly vast space of silver light with only an infinite creamy gray floor in sight. No sound from the outside made its way into the chamber, so he had plenty of time and peace. In the meanwhile, the Mastermind was, in fact, pacing the floor in a depressed state. It was unusual for him and he for certain despised it.

He just could not take his mind off of Notch. Out of all of the rulers, he had been closest with Notch. They'd spent much more time together than even Herobrine and Queen Enderdragon combined! They even went to college together! It was horrid to think that all that was in past for good and hardly worth anything to remember. It sickened him so! If he had his way, the Glitch would have taken him instead, and then Notch would be here to rest up and train up to help save the dimensions of the universe. Notch had the knowledge and he did not; he was merely quick-witted, improvisational, and had magic on his side.

The Mastermind spent much time thinking about Notch's death and all the things he would have said. On the other hand, he spent even more of his time in the Clock Chamber remembering the good ol' days back in college. Oh, the pranks they pulled. He distinctly recalled the time when he and Notch glued fake mustaches all over one of their professor's chalkboards. Of course, this was back when he was still getting used to his magic abilities, so he accidently set the board on fire, which led to the fire alarm going off,

"_...and the fire department had to come put out the whole university plus that old hag Mrs. Bigauree's wig. Ahh... I remember it like it was yesterday."_

The Mastermind was very tempted to use the Clock Chamber and go back in time to watch the whole thing over, but he stopped himself. There were many troubles on his mind, so he didn't need a temporal paradox to deal with as well.

* * *

Unfortunately, although all of our heroes were having pleasant times remembering the golden days, only times of darkness were ahead of them.

* * *

**Hoorah! The first chapter is complete! Well, what'd you think?**

**And now for a snippet from the bonus story of **_**Sugar Lords.**_

* * *

Pastrinator64 and the others were already out the door by the time he was finished with his speech. He himself flew side by side with Nwinds and explained what he had missed. When he was finished, Nwinds closed his eyes, thinking hard.

"Wow... A power level of 2,000,000, huh? Interesting and frightening at the same time."

Pastrinator64 looked on ahead, the faint essence of that thing's power still present in his soul. He could feel it even from that far away. Its power was nothing like any other living thing in the universe, making it much different compared to all the others.

"The one thing that worries me is whether the source of power level is friend or foe. If it turns out to be the latter, then we'll have a very dangerous enemy on our hands. Probably one that we won't have even the slightest chance of defeating, not even in combined forces."

Pixelized Pikale and Company heard his statement; both of their heads jerked to look at him to their right.

"What?!" shouted Pikale. "You can't be serious!"

"No way, absolutely no way!" chimed Pixelized.

Pastrinator64 gritted his teeth and muttered,

"Yes way. This thing is nearly four times more powerful than I am. Even if we all teamed up on it if it turned out to be hostile, our attacks would be like the bites of mosquitoes. We'd only annoy him."

Below him, Luvr called out in a mildly ticked tone,

"Or her!"

Pastrinator64 rolled his eyes and continued to think about the upcoming creature, person or entity; he knew not what it was, but he could only be hopeful that he could reason with it, whatever it turned out to be.

* * *

**Well, there you have it! The first inside look for what the side-story **_**Sugar Lords **_**will hold!**

**Before I sign out, I'd like to inform you all that I will be gone from Fanfiction this next week because I'm spending it at my grandparents' house, so I have no access to a computer.**

**This is Pastrinator64, your fellow writer and reader, signing out!**

***throws sugar bomb and disappears behind its cloud of fine white sugar***

**...Goodbye for now...**

**~Pastrinator64 [~]**


	2. Ch 2: The Fountain of Adolescence

**Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with the second chapter of **_**Hourglass.**_

**First, before I answer your reviews, I need to say what I said before… I WILL LET YOU KNOW WHEN I AM ACCEPTING OC'S! I AM NOT CURRENTLY ACCEPTING THEM, SO PLEASE SAVE YOUR SUGGESTIONS FOR A LATER DATE! Sorry, I just had to say that; I've already gotten some OC's. They're pretty good, but I need you guys to wait for when I tell you to submit.**

**Speaking of OC's, I apologize for the guidelines because I forgot to include **_**Age **_**in there.**

**Anyway, NOW I can answer your reviews!**

Replies To Reviews

**spark n ' Jetz: **I really like your OC, by the way, but I'll tell you when I need OC's.

**Guest: **Ahhh! You forgot AGAIN? Write your password down, my friend! It'll be worth it if you remember, because having an account is way better than being a guest.

**Blaze 12345: **When I do ask for OC's I'll need you to specify with the last name as the block power.

**clubby789: **Yeah, the Glitch never does seem to go away, does it?

**Volcanic the hedgehog: **Exactly! But that name's trademarked, so I have to come up with something else. Also, the Clock Chamber is different than the Hyperbolic Time Chamber because in the Clock Chamber you can manipulate time to your desire. In other words, it's a vast room that acts as a time machine.

**Guest: **Hi again, British buddy! You should really get yourself an account or at least add a name rather than just "Guest." Then I have no way of addressing you properly. Anyway, I assure you that all of your questions shall be answered at a later date.

**Well, this is about where I start putting in my brief—yet usually not-so-brief—overview of the previous chapter, but I'm starting to think that I won't be doing summaries at the beginning of each chapter. I've gotten a lot of reviews from people saying that the summary was unnecessary or annoyingly long, so I'm going to ask you, as the audience, what your opinion is. Vote "yes to summary" or "no to summary," because I need to know if it's worth the trouble. Thanks!**

**Now then, let us get on with the chapter!**

* * *

_Chapter 2: The Fountain of Adolescence_

While many of the residents of the Palace of 0 were reminiscing their pasts, Norman remained entirely neutral towards all of the deaths he had seen that were burned into his memory including Mark's. Farixz the First had put that dreadful emotion hex on him again in order to keep him from breaking down over the loss of his son. He was now the leader of this ragtag group of teenagers, so he needed to act like a leader that knew what he was doing and wouldn't get off-task.

It was Monday morning in the 0th Dimension. Norman was standing inside of a spacious room lit by lights of many colors, contrasting the multitude of silvery patterns of the palace. The source of the rainbow lighting came from the stacks of large hourglasses that lined the walls, ceiling, and even the floor. Every inch of space was covered by a different-hued hourglass, and every single one of them continued to flow with fine sand. Norman, fascinated by the entirety of the room, bent down on one knee to observe a neat icy-colored hourglass by his left foot; the sand within it continued to flow, but it would switch directions every two seconds, flowing upward and then down again, then in a circle through each end.

"_That would be the Back to the Future realm, Norman—the 23,449__th__ Dimension, to be exact."_

Norman smiled as he watched the shifting sand.

"Neat," he remarked.

Serisdo the Second floated at his side. When Norman looked back up at the Spirit, he knew only that it was him because of the difference in their faces. While Farixz the first's was a more polygonal type with its pyramid shape and certain symmetry to it, Serisdo's held no borders and was swirling around slightly, appearing smoothly curved near his chin. Other than their faces, Norman knew not of the difference between each of the Spirits In Between. Even their voices were the same, pretty much.

Serisdo looked up at the ceiling, gazing almost dreamily at the multicolored surface.

"_This room was constructed by Froace the Fourth and Firzon the Fifth; they were like inseparable brothers, they did. Froace, with his love for money, supplied all of the time-tracking "sand" for the room, which may appear to look like sand but is really extremely fine diamond powder, and then crafted each and every one of the hourglasses from fine gems of millions of different forms, each one a unique creation. Firzon, using his keen eye and great attention to detail, created the room and its space, putting the hourglasses in their places as he believed was most artistic. Finally, though, Farixz came in and breathed each individual hourglass into life, which made the beginning of time for all dimensions he brought into the universe."_

Norman glanced at Serisdo and asked curiously,

"What about you and the other two Spirits In Between? Did you get a chance to refine the room at all?"

Serisdo glided around the gigantic room, observing it as a whole, letting himself go back a little in time. As he brushed his wing against the wall he could feel the magnificently flawless glass surface of each special time-keeper.

"_Well, I was never a very artistic individual and neither was Thorvon. I am the intellectual one, the one who lets all past, present, and future knowledge exist inside of dimensions for their inhabitants and Thorvon created emotion for all capable beings of these infinite dimensions, so neither of us were wanted by Froace and Firzon; they wished to take on the project by themselves except for when they needed to get all the hourglasses to work independently, which was what Farixz's job was, for he was and is the creator with no limitations. As Farixz explained a night ago during that meeting, Froace, Firzon and Sycallion were very, well…outgoing Spirits."_

Norman paused for a moment and noticed that the last Spirit, Sycallion the Sixth, had been left out of Serisdo's reply. He stood up from the ground and walked closer towards Serisdo, who was floating twenty or so feet higher up, still brushing his wings against the glassy, colorful wall.

"What about Sycallion?"

Serisdo froze in midflight and shut his eyes in sudden agony at the mere mention of the last of his brethren.

* * *

The gnarled hand of Satan held up Sycallion by his neck, his blackened claws digging into the Spirit's skin. Blood was dripping from his fingertips, blotting Sycallion's gloriously shining diamond armor with crimson blemishes. To the side, Firzon was staggering helplessly away from the swirling torrent of flames that surrounded the Devil and his hostage. Froace, with his right leg nearly severed at the knee and his left foot absent, was hanging onto Firzon's back in order to keep himself upright, his eyelids shuddering with threatening fatigue. Both of them were a meager fifteen feet away from the vortex of fire.

Farixz stood outside of the blazing circle and did nothing but stare at the fallen angel. He did no such thing to attempt to save Sycallion—just gazed in a dreaded grief that seemed to have overcome him when he realized that not even he could defeat such an entity. Thorvon lay within the border of the flames, unconscious and blackened by the fire's wrath as a result of his heroic but unsuccessful efforts.

Finally, there was Serisdo, who lay beside Thorvon but remained conscious. Although he felt like he was struggling against falling into a exhaustion-induced sleep, he managed to keep his focus on the evil spirit that stood only a few feet away, holding the youngest of his brothers. He tried to lift any part of his body in resistance to the pain, but his labors were in vain.

Satan glowered down at Sycallion, whose eyes had fallen back into his head, his mouth agape with blood dripping from his lips, his entire body collapsed from the sheer suffering he experienced. Only a faint wheeze escaped his mouth in response to the crushing grip around his neck by the Devil's hand.

"**I smell betrayal, Sycallion the Sixth!" **murmured Satan with a sickly-sweet tone in his voice. **"Although I may detect the scent everywhere I lurk, it is most strong in this vicinity!"**

Satan lowered his head and let out a forked serpent tongue, grazing Sycallion's cheek and burning it on the spot, making the Spirit moan in pain.

"**And speaking of which, you seem to be in luck today! I've been generous enough to pay you a personal visit for the day of your sentence! Your soul is in need of the appropriate damnation!" **he muttered, his words dripping with wickedness.

He waited for a moment, letting the roar of the fire drown out all the other screams coming from the tortured souls of the realm in which they were in. The villain's words were still echoing in Serisdo's ears, slightly jumbled and hard to make out due to his condition. He turned his head and glared outside of the ring of fire, his eyes staring daggers at Farixz, who remained motionless and unmerciful towards Sycallion. He mustered up what little energy he had to send his pleas to Farixz telepathically, as his voice had gone from him.

"_Farixz! Help Sycallion! You are unharmed, untouched! You have the power to stop this spawn of Hell!"_

There came no reply from Farixz. He stayed where he was, his misery blocking out all communication from his brother. Serisdo couldn't even strengthen his mind enough to speak to Farixz a second time. His head fell limply to the side from exhaustion, leaving him to stare at the ground, the fire's deafening crackle blasting in his ears. It only took a few moments before he completely lost his grip on his self-control and found himself falling into unconsciousness.

* * *

A flashforward—a vision into the future.

Serisdo exited the room at a frantic pace without any warning, leaving Norman alone in about three seconds. Norman stared at the large doorway where he had gone and was instantly meant with questions. What did Serisdo have against Sycallion the Sixth?

* * *

Fast-forwarding seven days into the future, the heroes of the prophecy were sitting in the dining room at the grand dinner table. The main course of the evening was a delicious flounder and everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves even with the certain threat that was the Glitch looming over their heads. Astrid Silverfishstone took her fork and knife and banged them down on the table, licking her lips and declaring,

"You know what the three happiest things to hear are? Breakfast is served, lunch is served, DINNER is served!"

To her left, Kelsey hit her on the shoulder and gave her a scornful look.

"Astrid, don't be rude."

Astrid just rolled her eyes and stabbed the entire hunk of fish with her fork as though it were a spear, and lifted the fish to her mouth to tear chunks off with her teeth. Kelsey scooted a little farther away from Astrid before starting on her food. She found herself picking at her food rather than eating it; it was just too difficult to think about food at all.

It had been over a week since they'd taken refuge inside the Palace of 0. It was nice, what with all of the servants that were around to get you what you wanted, the luxury spa, the gourmet food, and everything else. Still, even though she'd been pampered all that time, her mind was still on Mark. And the Glitch. And the fate of all the universe and its dimension. And everything!

Every time she wouldn't eat, she'd have to say to herself just one sentence.

"Mark would want you to eat." she murmured to herself.

Adrian looked to his right at Kelsey and spoke through his mouthful of flounder.

"What'd ya say?"

Kelsey sighed and continued to poke her food.

"Nothing."

On the other side of the table sat Norman and Lizzy, silently eating their fish. Everybody, except for Astrid, was pretty quiet, actually. The entire week had made them grow very, well, apart. Each person could do whatever they wanted, really, so everyone was off doing their own thing pretty much all day. This made it incredibly awkward when they came together to get served dinner.

Norman, however, was eyeing the end of the table where Farixz sat watching them all eat. He felt immensely uncomfortable just being watched and it was hard to focus on the food at all. He was able to last all the way through the key lime pie at the end of the meal, at least.

"Well, I'm pretty tired, so I'm just gonna head off to bed, thanks!" he said quickly, getting up from his finished plate and heading off towards the nearest hallway.

"_Norman, I am afraid not. I have been waiting for you all to finish your supper for a purpose. There is a matter I must bring up that is in relation to your upcoming quest."_

Astrid didn't seem all too amused at the word "quest."

"We're not leaving already, are we?"

Farixz shook his head slowly.

"_No, but very soon. There is somewhere I must first take the elders of this group."_

He nodded towards Norman and Liz, who looked mildly surprised.

"What for?" inquired Norman, a bit of skepticism in his tone.

Farixz glanced from Norman to Liz and back again a few times, observing them closely. Finally, he spoke.

"_Yes, you are both suitable material for the transformation."_

Liz got up out of her chair and said with much uncertainty,

"What transformation?"

The Spirit looked a little annoyed at them for a moment as he replied,

"_All in good time, I assure you. Just please, follow me."_

Farixz whirled around and hovered off immediately towards the doors to the kitchen. Norman and Liz got out of their seats quickly and followed him, not wanting to be left behind. As they entered the kitchen and hurried off after him as he floated up a stairwell near the back, Liz whispered to Norman,

"What do you think he's going to do to us?"

Norman reached out and squeezed her hand to calm her.

"It'll be fine, I'm sure. I know he's very odd, but he's definitely not insane. There'll be no Slenderman repeats, not ever again, I promise."

She breathed heavy through her nose in reluctant agreement. They continued up through the stairwell for another minute or two until they reached its end, leading up to a dimly lit hallway that went on for about twenty meters before splitting off in two different directions. They saw Farixz turn left and disappear around the corner just in time.

"He could slow down, though." grumbled Norman, his legs burning slightly. "I'm not as young as I used to be."

"You're only 34." pointed out Liz, who had found no trouble at all when going up the tall stairwell.

They rounded the corner and found a door in front of them. It looked old and moldy, its hinges caked with rust. Norman reached out for the handle and grasped it, pulling it to open door. It came right off of the door with a crunch and fell apart in his hand.

"Aren't there celestial janitors in this palace, or something?" wondered Liz as she stared at the remains of the handle on the floor.

Norman grabbed the edge of the splintery wood and moved it ever so slightly, making it give off a sound like fingernails on a chalkboard. He cringed until the door was open enough for them to squeeze inside, which they did so, and then found themselves staring in awe of what stood before them in that dinky old room. There in its center sat a fountain of glowing blue water. The entire structure was cracked and dusty and the water was spilling out in rough streams, splattering the sides of the fountain slightly and spraying up into the face of whoever stood too close.

Farixz hovered in a slow circle around the fountain, gazing at it intently. Norman and Liz approached the fountain in curiosity, noting its ancient features.

"_This," _declared Farixz, _"is the Fountain of Adolescence. It was specifically designed to revert the drinker to their former age of thirteen years old."_

He suddenly slapped his wing down on Liz's wrist; she was almost about to dip her hand in the glowing water.

"_Don't touch. Now then, as I was saying, this fountain was crafted from the stone of the Boundary Wall in the 755__th__ Dimension—as you might call it, a favorite childhood dreamland named Neverland. You recognize it from the popular children's cartoon of Peter Pan, but as I have said before, every fictional and realistic world has its own place somewhere in the universe._

"_Anyway, the Boundary Wall was an endless barrier of stone separating the magical world of Neverland from all dimensions. Its job was to let those under the age of thirteen pass through and to keep all other outside travelers out. Of course, when the notorious villain Captain Hook attempted to break in through the wall and invade Neverland, he did so by finding the kink in the hexed wall where the magic was weak enough, breaking through the weak point and creating a hole in the stone and the magic; although the magic has reapplied itself since, the stone was scattered away into the 754__th__ Dimension._

"_In the 754__th__ Dimension where the realm of the popular animated story of Robin Hood, one of its eldest citizens came across the Boundary Stone and was accidently returned to the age of thirteen years old. Greatly joyful of the news, she caused a lot of racket throughout the dimension, letting everyone join in on the youthful magic. Rumors spread like wildfire, and soon other dimension leaders were finding out from the 754__th__'s: Robin Hood himself. An entire span of five hundred sixty-four dimensions tried to invade their dimension to take the magic stone, so finally I was brought in to delegate. And THAT is how I came to possess it."_

Liz looked at the fountain with a smile on her face, wondering what it would be like to return to being thirteen. Then she looked up at Farixz and asked,

"But why turn it into a fountain?"

Farixz shrugged his shoulders and replied,

"_Firzon happened to be extremely bored at the time, so I gave him the stone and told him to make whatever he wanted out of it—simple as that. Today, though, it serves a vital purpose. As I explained to you at the end of VOiD, the immeasurably patch of space from which the other Spirits and I have come from is always connected to us on a spiritual level as it is the source of our origin. Its power guides my wings to etch into the Divination of Dimensions a new chapter whenever it must serve a purpose, and last night I found myself being controlled by the ancient impulse once more._

"_This new chapter, the unexpected fourth of the Divination of Dimensions, stated in the very beginning that "The seven loyal youths of the prophecy will unite and retrieve the three fleeing Spirits, allowing the all-powerful Arabaloca to return to the ownership of the six Spirits in whole." It clearly state that seven youths were to do this, not five youths and two elders, so this a procedure that must take place..."_

Liz glanced up at Norman swiftly and they locked eyes.

"So we have to..." started Liz.

"...become teenagers again?" finished Norman.

Farixz nodded his head and let the realization set in for both of them. Liz's grin widened and so did Norman's. Suddenly, Liz burst out laughing and clasped her hands together.

"Oh, yes! I can't wait to become a teenager again! Those were the best years of my life!" she said excitedly, hardly able to contain herself.

Norman was happy for a moment, but then frowned as another thought came to mind, and so he turned back to Farixz.

"But what will happen to our brains? Will our memory be returned to only what we had those years ago?"

Farixz shook his head this time and smiled at him, saying calmly,

"_No need to fret, Norman Cobweb. Although your bodies and your personalities may return, your mind will still be filled with all the knowledge you currently possess."_

Then another thought came to Norman's mind that was, quite possibly, even worse.

"Our bodies...oh man." he muttered, internally groaning about the evident doom that would come upon them once they were transformed.

Liz touched his shoulder and looked momentarily concerned.

"What's wrong, hon?"

Norman simply looked over at her with a grievous look in his eyes and muttered a single word.

"Puberty."

Liz laughed so hard that she started snorting. Norman gritted his teeth and snapped,

"It's not funny!"

Farixz lifted his wings and quickly intervened,

"_Now then, now then! There is nothing I can do to alter your previous forms, so you are going to just have to deal with the consequences. There is no other alternative, I am afraid."_

Norman groaned for real this time, dreading the "wonderful changes of youth" that were to come, but sucked it up and stood straight up again.

"Alright, fine, let's just get this over with, I guess."

* * *

As Morgan stumbled through the forest she could feel the harsh whips of wind hitting her from behind, blowing her long, brown hair all around. Her legs and lungs protested, begging her to stop running, but her measly willpower kept her going, keeping her from the fine line between life and death.

She's lost both her contacts, so she couldn't even see where she was going as she flailed her arms, pushing hanging vines out of the way. Her desperation to get away was only increased as the sound of snapping twigs behind her did the same. Little did she know, she was just about to rudely disturb a sleeping green creature only ten blocks ahead of her. Moments later, Morgan's shoelaces snagged on a low tree branch as she was jumping from a small ledge, sending her careening straight down into the mean, green, explosive animal beneath the tree who was woken up unexpectedly from its nap.

The Creeper's eye sockets widened as it zeroed in on Morgan's terrified face. It hissed, swelling up on the spot, ready to explode, when suddenly a vine from above snatched it and chucked it high into the air, never to be seen again. She momentarily ceased her breath, keeping absolutely quiet as more vines slithered down across the trunk of the tree she sat huddled beneath. She scrunched herself up against the ledge next to the tree, struggling to keep out of reach of the creeping green tendrils.

The vines were only an inch from her face, feeling around the tree, searching for her. Finally, after another ten seconds, they began to retreat, and she was able to start breathing quietly. She watched in relief as the vines slithered their way out of sight. She was safe.

But then she got a sudden itch in her nose, and without any warning, she leaned forward suddenly and sneezed loudly. The vines immediately whipped into life from above and latched onto her, wrapping her in a cocoon and carrying her up the ledge towards their owner. She screamed at the top of her lungs with what little breath she had, but was shocked into silence when she saw what came next: a giant, green, mutated-looking Venus flytrap just sitting there with a horrible grin on its face.

Moments later, both the large plant and its captive disappeared into the dark forest.

* * *

**Oh no! I think we all know who THAT was.**

**On with QAA, then! :D**

**To Vanessa: I've never read **_**Moby Dick. **_**Is it good?**

Vanessa: "Oh, you have no idea! I'm so glad you asked! Here, allow me to briefly summarize the entire plot of the story in a short twelve-hour monologue. In the beginning—"

**To the Glitch: Dare: if you fail again you will be forced to play Sonic 2006, a game with more glitches than you can comprehend, for all of eternity.**

The Glitch: _"Challenge accepted, fool! If I win I am going to corrupt Sonic 2006's dimension anyway! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!"_

**Here's another snippet from the side-story of _Sugar Lords!_**

* * *

They reached the boundary of clouds within minutes and went from there. Each of them was well-trained and knew how to hide their powers, which they did well before they would reach their destination just in case of an ambush.

"How much longer?" shouted Pikale over the rushing wind in their ears.

"About two hours, give or take!" replied Pastrinator64.

"Why don't we just teleport?" suggested Kyle, pretending to do the finger-to-the-bridge-of-nose thing.

"I can't take all of you with me!" he answered, shaking his head. "Maybe one or two at a time, but not more than that!"

As he turned his head to look forward again, he thought to himself,

_"I wish I could, but this is the price I pay for acquiring help. It'll be worth it, of course, but we still gotta make it there."_

All he knew for sure was that there was a very long two hours ahead of them.

* * *

**Well, that's all for now! I hope you enjoyed chapter number two, and I'll see you all LATER!**

**This is Pastrinator64, your fellow writer and reader, signing out!**

***throws sugar bomb and disappears behind its cloud of fine white sugar***

**...Goodbye for now...**

**~Pastrinator64 [~]**


	3. Ch 3: Poison Plants and Pervert Plants

**Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter from Hourglass. I have a BIG announcement, everybody! I finally got myself a girlfriend! I mean, I did a month ago, but I kept forgetting to say anything. Still, though, I never imagined I'd be lucky enough to find myself a girl that was this fantastic. She's here on Fanfiction, too! Her username's SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd.**

**Anyway, on with the reviews!**

Replies To Reviews

**spark n' Jetz:** I'm not sure how the whole "wrath of Satan" thing will go. I'm just wondering if I'll be able to pull off such a character with accuracy.

**Guest:** Yeah, just click on "Guest" down by the box where you type your review and type in your own name. Also, I'm not nearly as familiar with the stories of Pokémon legendaries as I should be, so I wouldn't know.

**Volcanic the hedgehog:** Oh man...I just thought of that when you said it. Ohoho! YEAH! Awkward silences, I summon thee! XD

**Now then! Let us get a move on, shall we? This chap's mighty interesting, I might add. Enjoy!**

* * *

_Chapter 3: Poison Plants and Pervert Plants _

As Jeff awoke from his exhaustion-induced slumber, he found himself lying on a bed of...mushrooms. It was surprisingly comfortable. He was considering lying there forever, not worrying about a thing for any time more, but he was rudely interrupted by the sound of shuffling feet. A face suddenly appeared above him with no warning and he gave a jolt, attempting to jump up onto his feet but felt a searing pain on the right side of his body, making him just slump over.

"Jeff! 'Tis me, Martin!"

Jeff's eyebrows knotted together as he stared at the person who was standing above him. He had a chubby face and a Duck Dynasty beard. The hair on his head was just as wild and the same color of caramel. He had wrinkled features and looked just above fifty years old. If this man had not said his name, Jeff would have never recognized him.

"Wait, Mayor Mushroom?!" he shouted unbelievingly, forcing himself into a sitting position to get a better look at the former mayor of his hometown of Smelttown.

Ex-Mayor Mushroom was wearing what appeared to be a loincloth made of jungle leaves over his crotch, but that was about it. His enormous belly was covered in cuts and his legs and arms in bruises. It appeared as though he'd become a survivor of some remote forest since Jeff had last seen him. Ex-Mayor Mushroom looked down at himself and laughed heartily.

"Ah, yes! My appearance has changed quite a bit, that is true!" he said, and suddenly launched into a monologue before Jeff could say anything. "You see, it all began on the day of our long-forgotten capturing. As you may recall, we were trapped below the pyramid inside of that room of gold. And, as you may also recall, I was supposedly drowned in the process of the room filling with liquid gold because I was unwilling to let go of my precious golden artifact.

"Well, I must have been only submerged for about thirty seconds, because I found myself gasping for breathing, wet with liquid gold in the hot sand of the desert with the temple within sight. There was some sort of drainage system inside the temple, I suppose. The mummies found me lying there eventually and I was forced to flee into the jungle. I traveled for six days and nights, only able to live off of my supply of mushrooms for food in the harsh conditions. The jungle has changed me, Jeff, that it has." Jeff gawked at his old mayor, struggling to process what he'd just heard.

"Everyone thought you died!" he exclaimed, raising a hand. "But this whole time you've been living off of fungus in the jungle? With only a loincloth? Do you have no respect for yourself?"

Ex-Mayor Mushroom merely shrugged and replied,

"Losing my position as mayor has brought me down to such a level, yes. You may call me just Martin, my dear old friend."

Jeff squinted at the mushroom addict and retorted,

"Listen, I don't know where your ideas are coming from, but we're not friends. You are entirely responsible for my family's poverty, just in case your excessive consumption of mushrooms has jogged your memory."

Martin frowned as his brain was starting to catch up on the insult. Jeff tried to stand up so he could leave, but more pain spiked through the right side of his body. He looked down once he'd steadied himself and felt an immediately sickening feeling in his stomach. His right leg was missing entirely, with just a bloodied cloth bandage over his entire right hip.

"Uhhh..."

Martin shook his head solemnly when he noticed Jeff staring at his wound.

"Ah yes! Unfortunately, when I found you, you looked like a dead man just floating there, adrift at sea. I took you in my boat and brought you here to raise you and fill you with the proper knowledge you need to know to survive on one leg! Trust me, I have experience with this kind of disability! Why, back in 'nam, we went for DAYS without one leg. Or both! Sometimes even a kidney..."

Jeff groaned and shifted his position, trying to be comfortable.

"Martin, I think your mushrooms really are wrecking your brain; you have two legs, not one. Anyway, I really just need answers. You, of course, don't know this, but I'm actually an Aetherian. I died in the Overworld and went to the Aether for a little while as an angel there. Somehow, though, I jumped off of those floating islands way up there and managed to land back in the Overworld once more. It isn't possible, though! Any Aetherian would be dissolved into the code of the Minecraft Dimension if they attempted to go past the boundary separating the Aether and the Overworld. That's why I need to know how I got here!"

Jeff looked up at Martin and found him to just be slouching there, his mouth agape and his eyes slightly glazed. He suddenly snapped back into reality and declared,

"My greatest apologies, Jeffrey, I was thinking about pumpkins. You were saying?"

Jeff clenched his teeth and muttered,

"Just get me to the nearest town, alright?"

Martin clasped his hands together happily and said,

"But of course! Here, let me help you up, my dear fellow!"

"Yeah, whatever." grumbled Jeff as he reluctantly let the mushroom maniac help him to his...foot.

He leaned on Martin's shoulder as they walked/hobbled slowly towards the nearby jungle. Jeff could only hope that the crazy individual beside him actually knew what he was doing. Plus, where the heck was 'nam?

* * *

He may have been only fourteen, but Johnny owned a Bed & Breakfast place just outside of Sunflower Acres. Usually, he got maybe two customers a month, if that, if there were people who happened to wander into the village. This was because the town he lived in was hidden beneath a canopy of giant acacias in the center of a forest. Product placement was a difficult aspect of life, that was for certain.

At the moment, Johnny was lying asleep in bed, dreaming of the wonderful days in the jungle, picking flowers and harvesting cocoa beans to make fresh chocolate for his homemade rolls at Ol' Malcolm's Bedroom. This had been the name of Johnny's great-great-great-great-great-grandfather who had started the family business hundreds of years ago. The key to the shop was passed down from generation to generation—a rare find, that key, for it was an extremely rare mod that their family had been lucky enough to come across. That very key hung by a thick handmade iron chain around Johnny's neck.

Unfortunately for Johnny, his dreams were rudely interrupted by the loud banging of a fist on his shack's door. Groaning, he got out of bed, fixed the spots on his head where his flat brown hair stuck up and then shuffled towards the door, blinking his eyes rapidly to clear them. The knocking didn't cease until he finally unlocked and opened the door. The sight before him immediately made him step back in defense. What looked like a fattened villager carrying his one-legged wife was standing just outside with looks of frightening alertness on their faces.

"WANT STAY!" shouted the fat one, brandishing a wooden sword.

"M...Mar..." was all that his wife muttered; her voice soundly oddly like a man's.

Johnny looked at the two villagers for a moment, deeply confused, but finally spoke again, gesturing inside.

"Would you like to, er, rest?"

The fatter of the two nodded and stepped towards the doorway. He turned himself sideways to be able to fit through and squeezed inside, then turned again to face Johnny.

"WANT BED! WANT HEAL! WIFE LEG!"

Johnny looked over at the wife's missing leg and immediately understood the urgency. They may be villagers, but they were still living creatures that needed help. Johnny quickly ran into the kitchen, grabbing a couple porkchops and then heading back out into the main room. The villager and his wife were already rushing into the left of the two bedrooms. He followed them and watched as the fat one set his wife down on the bed. Johnny gave the female two porkchops, but she wouldn't eat them. The man shoved him roughly, shouting,

"WANT HEAL! WIFE LEG!"

Johnny scurried away in fear, though he knew he could easily fight the villager off if he needed, and rushed into the back room behind the front counter. There he kept all his medical supplies, which, to be honest, wasn't much. He threw open and chest and rustled around frantically for some kind of potion that would help. In vain, he grumbled,

"Oh, I'm no good with these tricky tonics!"

Finally, though, his hand grasped some cold glass. Lifting it up he found a shimmering blood-red potion—exactly what he needed! He ran out of the back room and into the bedroom again, hastily handing the potion into the villager woman's hands. She removed the cork and lifted the bottle to her fat lips with shaky hands. She drank only a third of the bottle, but in an instant they all watched as her leg grew back miraculously. The villager woman's eyes lit up with joy and she stood triumphantly to her feet, hugging her husband.

"MARTIN! YOU RIGHT. WITCHCRAFT BE GOOD SOMETIMES."

Martin the villager turned to Johnny and nodded in thanks, then said,

"WE GO NOW." They left Ol' Malcolm's Bedroom seconds later, leaving Johnny in a state of shock and satisfaction. He'd just saved the life of a villager! With the burden off of his shoulders, he walked back to his own bedroom and lied down, sighed happily as he closed his eyes and began to drift off once more...

"KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK—"

Johnny was back unlocking the door in a few seconds, grumbling to himself about late-night customers. Once the door's lock had been removed he pulled the door open. ANOTHER fat villager and his one-legged wife was standing there.

"Want stay!" shouted the fat one.

The wife, who looked more like a man smeared in cocoa while wearing vines for hair, struggled in the fatty's arms, trying to get him to let go.

"Martin! This is the dumbest idea I've ever heard! Look, this guy's a Minecraftian, not a villager, you dumbass!"

Martin's brilliant plan was to dress them both up as villagers and demand entry into the first shelter they laid eyes on. Of course, his brain being poisoned by some bad shrooms, he didn't think it out too well. Martin shook Jeff to quiet him and whispered loudly,

"Shhh! Keep quiet or he will detect our phoniness."

Johnny rubbed his eyes and moaned. He was a nice guy, but it too early for this kind of thing. He opened the door wider and jabbed a thumb towards the two bedrooms inside.

"Would you like a place to stay, sirs?" he said as politely as he could.

Martin squeezed inside without answering, banging Jeff's head against the outer and inner walls in the process, making him slump over like a rag doll. He targeted Johnny and pointed a grubby finger at him.

"Of course, it is clear to me that our disguises have fooled you not in the least, but it is still irrevocable that you allow us to stay here. My colleague here has a leg that will not regenerate by food nor by potions; that witch we unexpectedly met was very unhappy, I'll say. I've received burning marks all over my bollocks!"

Johnny pursed his lips and nodded to pretend like he knew exactly what Martin was talking about.

"Well, um, great...you may stay here for the night. Either of the two beds is free."

Martin smiled broadly as he carried Jeff into the bedroom on the right and set him down on the bed. Johnny came in the room and eyed Jeff's bandages.

"You say you've tried food and potions?" he asked, looking down at Jeff, who blinked a few times as he was coming back from his dizziness.

The boy standing in front of Jeff looked like a tall and strong young man. He had flat brown hair that reached his ears and a kind, clean-shaven face. Handsome, too. His clothes were very light—khakis, sandals, a brown T-shirt.

"Yes." he mumbled, still waiting for his vision to clear.

Johnny pondered this for a moment. If food and potions didn't work, he sure couldn't help them. He did know someone who could, though.

"There's an old woman about three miles west of here that knows about wounds of all sorts. Maybe you should just go see her."

Martin and Jeff looked at each other. Then Martin swung his fist in a happy manner and declared,

"Well, jolly good! We must depart at once!"

Jeff piped up from the bed, protesting,

"I'm not going anywhere 'til I get some sleep! You've been getting tree branches and vines in my face all evening."

Johnny smiled and gestured out the bedroom door, saying,

"Mr. Martin, you are welcome to stay in the other room if you'd like."

He honestly would have rather ran right out the door while dragging Jeff behind him in search of that woman, but he stopped himself with was little self-control he possessed. Thanking Johnny for the extra bed, he strolled out of the room to the right towards his new chambers. Johnny looked back down at the man in the bed, guessing his age to be about thirty or so, and decided to reach out a welcoming hand.

"My name's Johnny Bed. Most people just call me JB, though."

Jeff grinned and lifted his own hand, shaking the other's; this one's grip was pretty strong.

"Well, JB, my name's Jeffrey Ironblock. I prefer, Jeff, if you don't mind."

"Not at all." said JB, starting off towards the door.

"Have a nice night!"

JB closed the door to Jeff's room, finally granting him peace.

* * *

Jeff was woken up suddenly by the sound of bloodcurdling screams. His instincts made him attempt to launch himself out of bed in preparedness, but his instincts had already forgotten about his missing leg. The result was him falling over the foot of the bed and smacking his chin on the floorboards.

Groaning in pain, Jeff forced himself into a sitting position, rubbing his chin with a grimace. Suddenly, the scream came again, right from outside of Ol' Malcolm's Bedroom. He dragged himself up against the foot of the bed and got into a shaky stance. Hopping on one foot, he made his way across the room towards the door, holding onto the wall for balance.

It took him a full minute to make his way out of the bedroom, the main room, and all the way around the outside of the shack. When he did get around back of the Bed & Breakfast, his eyes widened when he found Martin trying to roast JB over a fire; he was currently tied to a long stick by vines, rotating slowly over the fire just one block lower.

"HELP! MANIAC!" he screamed.

Jeff flapped his arms wildly as he was shouting at Martin for his attention.

"Martin! What the hell are you doing?!"

Ex-Mayor Mushroom turned to look at Jeff from the side and smiled broadly upon noticing him.

"Jeff, my boy! I did not see you down there with all this tall grass and whatnot! I am simply cooking us some breakfast, is all."

"He's not food! He's a living, breathing person! Get him off of that stick or so help me I'LL roast you over a burning log!"

Martin glanced at JB, who was struggling feverishly at the vines as one of them caught fire.

"GET ME OFF OF THIS THING!"

Martin sighed and reluctantly drew out his wooden sword.

"Alright! Very well, then. What a bloody waste of vitamins, though."

He stomped out the fire and then snapped the vines with the dull wooden blade, making JB fall flat on the hot log below him. He quickly jumped back up and brushed ash off his T-shirt.

"Thanks." he said, looking down at Jeff.

Then he turned to look at Martin, who puffed out his chest heroically.

"Thanks." he said again, much less appreciative.

Jeff hopped back up on one foot and leaned against the side of the Bed & Breakfast. As Martin was walking towards him with a gesture to embrace, Jeff grabbed the wooden sword from his hand and bonked him on the forehead with the flat edge of the blade.

"What in Notch's name were you thinking?!"

Martin gained a look of confusion; he'd expected Jeff to be happy for the free breakfast.

"I was thinking I was in the mood for something exotic, that's what! One mustn't live off of mushrooms for all eternity, am I right?"

Jeff hit him over the head a second time, hopefully to jog his memory.

"Cannibalism isn't exotic! It's inhumane!"

Martin didn't seem to understand a word of what Jeff was saying, so he merely shrugged and walked away defiantly, straight into the heart of the jungle.

"You ladies may dawdle all you care, but I am on a journey to find that woman! An adventure is what I crave, lads! CRAVE!"

With that last word, he disappeared behind a wall of vines.

* * *

Vines. Vines, vines, vines. Vines were now Morgan's LEAST favorite block. When Morgan awoke from her shock-induced nap, she found herself suspended in the air by a web of entangling green vines. Snakelike vines were wrapped around her wrists and ankles, as well as portions of her torso, to keep her in the same uncomfortable position. She couldn't see what was below her because of the way she was hanging.

Although panicky, Morgan concentrated on the vines, hoping that she would be able to turn them into something else. She stared hard at the vines around her right arm and focused on her block power.

"C'mon...c'mon! IRON BARS!" she shouted aloud, hoping that her frustration would replace the vines with that familiar iron creation.

No such luck; Morgan Ironbars then realized that these were not vine blocks, but rather something from that mutated mob. She was trying to figure out how to just keep her breathing under control when she felt the vines around her quiver.

Instantly, she started crying, knowing that the creature was awake and coming for her. She struggled against the vines even more, but as she did so they seemed to only get tighter. Her breathing stopped when the Venus flytrap came into view in front of her. The prickly green teeth bared in a grin on its face.

_"I am Lalita and I wanna play!"_ it hissed suddenly, making Morgan jump.

"You can t-talk?!" she murmured, frightened as heck.

_"Yes! I can talk! I wanna play!"_

Morgan could feel the monster Lalita's vines creeping up her arms and legs, making her shudder. Then she realized that she was wearing hardly any clothes.

"You pervert! S-stripping me into m-my undies?!" she said, trying to sound at least somewhat intimidating, though it came out with absolutely no confidence.

Two vines sprouted from Lalita's main stem and hovered towards Morgan, making her flinch and increasing her frantic cries.

"DON'T! LET GO!"

_"Don't let go? Okay! Heehee! I'll never let go..."_ whispered Lalita excitedly, though she knew perfectly well that her captive was begging.

The two vines made contact with Morgan's calves and then slithered upward from there, passing her knees and to her thighs, dangerously close to her core.

"STOP IT, PLEASE! I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS!"

_"But I am so lonely! I don't have anyone to play with! To cuddle with!"_

Lalita didn't understand Morgan's pleas or the boundary line of cuddling, and so her bristly green tendrils inched closer and closer. When the vines were a mere inch from her core, Morgan's shrieks of protest echoed throughout the walls of the cave they were stuck in, so loud that the echoes made the stalactites starting shaking on the ceiling.

Just as Lalita was about to do what the Lord in Heaven forbid, a humongous chunk of rock fell from the ceiling and smacked her right on the head, crushing the rest of her body along with it. The vines around Morgan snapped and she screamed as she freefell twenty blocks to the cave floor.

Lalita crashed down in the center of the cave, Morgan bouncing safely off of her tangle of squishy vines. She landed only two blocks from the massive heap of plant creature and rocks. Thankfully, the falling of the stones from above ceased and Morgan was able to lift her head to look at her surroundings. A waterfall of lava off of a rocky ledge three blocks to her right lit up the tall cave. She cowered at the shadows that skeletons of other captured female Minecraftians cast; the corpses of previous victims of Lalita covered the stone floor around her.

Shivering with cold and anxiety, Morgan stood up and eyed Lalita, whose plant body and tangle of vines were crushed under the rocks that had fallen. Dead.

* * *

**Ex-Mayor Mushroom sure has taken a turn for the worst! Still, I thought that scene with the human rotisserie was pretty comical. XD I'm not sure whether to feel sad about Lalita dying a lonely soul or just be happy that we've got another creepy character out of the story. Opinions?**

**Anyway, ON WITH QAA!**

**To the Glitch: Come on! Set your evil plans in motion! You've talked about ruling the dimensions for two books now! Seriously get a move on!**

The Glitch: _I am not Lord Frieza! I am Lord Glitch! Lord Glitch takes its time whenever it declares necessary! You will merely have to wait in angst as I slowly crush this universe! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!_

**To Sally the nice plasma guy: Did Gabe want to be possessed? And why him, anyway?**

Salutem: I was only looking for a suitable host for my essence. Unlike the Glitch, I explained all of my plans to Gabe before I possessed him and continued to communicate with him while he carried me inside of his soul. I had no intention to entirely take over a person.

**To Doughbelly, Boysenberry and Blackberry: Where are the giant robocreepers, cake dragons and Frienderdragons when you need them?**

Doughbelly: *flies around the End whimpering, wishing he had company*

Boysenberry: *playing fetch with Calista Cactus on a tropical island in the middle of a large lake*

Blackberry: *lying in a wrecked pile, stranded somewhere in a desert far off from civilization*

**And now for the third snippet from Sugar Lords!**

* * *

Actually, those two hours were quite eventful. In the first half hour they ended up fighting off a giant flock of rabid seagulls while flying over a lake and got swallowed by a whale. To the whale, it was just like eating something that didn't agree with his stomach, because they ended up being spit back out ten minutes later.

Then, in the next half hour they stopped for lunch at Paul Bunyan's Cook Shanty. Enderdude ended up eating a brain-sucking burger, so Nwinds had to use his mind powers to mentally battle the creature that had embedded itself inside of Enderdude's brain. It was the most intense five minutes of Nwinds's life; everybody else just had to sit at the table and watch as he stared passionately at Enderdude's forehead the whole time.

Throughout the next half hour, the Knights of the Blocky Table found that they had wandered into the Bermuda Triangle. Volcanic was the first to notice, as he was the one that got cursed into randomly disappearing in a cloud of green fog and then reappearing in the same manner. It took them almost no time to find the sea witch who'd cursed him, because she kept stalking them from behind.

The last half hour was the most eventful, though. They made a stop at Dunkin' Donuts because Pastrinator64 said he was dying to get some pastries. Everyone except him was bored, but he thought the stop for pastries was an essential part of life for him. This resulted in an argument between him and Pikale, who'd been ticked off with everyone from the start. That argument THEN resulted in them fighting an epic battle inside of the building. Pastrinator64 won, but still had a difficult time due to Pikale's rage, which had increased his power level from 310,005 to 410,005. Still, being a level 530,090, it wasn't so hard.

* * *

**Hello, Pastrinator64 here! I realize that I made a mistake when saying what Pikale's power level was back in the bonus chapter at the end of VOiD. I said it was 3,100,050, not 310,005. Just clearing that up! Thanks! :D**

* * *

Anyway, two hours came and went in a buzz. At last, though, they reached the planet of Malloward, which was now flooded in spoiled chocolate milk. The storm had not yet ceased, so the entire planet itself looked like it was about to leak through its center as its soft surface was slowly dissolving into the liquid. And it smelled really, really, REALLY bad.

* * *

**One quick announcement, everyone! I will now be accepting OC's. Everyone that has already submitted an OC may submit another if they choose, but I will look at every single one that is submitted before making my decision on which one to pick. You can guarantee that you'll be seeing an OC in the next chapter! ;D**

**Well, that's all for now! I hope you enjoyed chapter number three, and I'll see you all LATER!**

**This is Pastrinator64, your fellow writer and reader, signing out!**

***throws sugar bomb and disappears behind its cloud of fine white sugar* **

**..Goodbye for now...**

**~Pastrinator64 [~]**


	4. Ch 4: Devils, Diagnoses and the Dead

**Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter from ****_Hourglass. _****I thank you all for your patience, for I have started my very first Hunger Games fanfic and there are actually people looking at it! I heard that's a rare thing nowadays, so I've been trying to keep up with both stories.**

**Anyway, I am here to tell you now that I have decided on the winner of our little OC challenge! I have accepted D4sssy's OC: Auconi Diamondore. If your OC didn't get in then please don't feel bad because I'm going to have other opportunities for you to submit your OC's in the future. Thanks!**

**Now then, for replies to reviews!**

Replies To Reviews

**spark n' Jetz: **I had the idea to bring in Mayor Mushroom and was just like "AWWWWWWWW YEAH!" I love that guy so much now that he's a total psycho.

**Kyle McShade: **Ugh! Homework! Don't we all hate it? Yeah, I realized that the OC promise thing was forgotten pretty quickly so I'm just not gonna promise anything for this story because I know I'll forget that too. XD Just like I forgot to mention I had a girlfriend.

**Volcanic the hedgehog: **Man, I am such a weirdo, right? XD

**badgerman: **A. Sorry, dude. I had a lot of OC's to decide between. :/

B. Thanks!

C. I was getting a little creeped out by myself, so I just decided to kill it off.

D., E., F. and G. (All answered in QAA)

**badgerman: **That's okay. You seem like you're fairly new with Fanfiction. You are, aren't you?

**Nwinds: **1. Okay, good. I've been trying to get myself to read each of the chapters beforehand but I end up getting all jittery about posting.

2. No, I'm just trying to avoid that. I'll be explaining the block concepts and mods later within the story, so...yeah. I just don't want to complicate things.

3. He was saying that he didn't want to get there with the rest of the Knights of the Blocky Table and find out that the powerful figures were gone, disappeared, POOF.

4. I saw the error from earlier and fixed it, so thanks! :D

5. You've never heard "back in 'nam" jokes before? It was something that Martin included in his speech when he was talking about wanting to teach Jeff how to live off of one leg.

6. I couldn't agree with you more. I was starting to truly creep myself out, so I'm just like "nope" and had her die.

7. Well, it's only natural; you're like the most intelligent out of the group!

8. Thanks again! I'm not sure what the posting timeframe will be, though. It won't be a regularly set date, probably. Because I'm currently writing my first Hunger Games fanfic and people are actually looking at it, I've been trying to juggle both of them.

**Alright! I'm all done with that, so how about we get on with the next chap?**

**Now, let the story commence!**

* * *

_Chapter 4: Devils, Diagnoses and the Dead_

The sun may have been absent, but rays of light filled the throne room, yet. Gathered in front of the six great thrones were Norman and Liz, who were awaiting those other teenagers to get there. Norman and Liz were just staring at the ground in an awkward silence that was so heavy it was like it weighed down the air.

Neither of them were ready to experience being back in the body of a teenager, so both of them were moving around uneasily, adjusting to the new kind of movement, perspective, vision, etc.

Norman and Liz were both still testing out the hotbars on their arms, but Norman was also fidgeting with the F3 device on his left wrist. He still remembered the day when they met the SOSKG (Society of Splendidly Knowledgeable Gentlemobs) and Professor Chickenson gifted him with that magical gray button that could map the exact location of wherever he was. He couldn't really feel it as he was flexing his wrist, but there was that faint sort of pinch that he couldn't shake off.

About a minute later, Adrian, Kelsey, Vanessa and Astrid approached them with Blockpacks over their backs. All of them had been called to the throne room for a very important announcement from Farixz.

The four of them had been talking amongst themselves as they were walking over, but as soon as all of them were together they ceased all noise and just stared at the two former adults in front of them. Moments later, Astrid lifted a hand and tried to grasp thin air.

"Whoa. You can almost feel the awkward."

To save them from any further awkward silences, Farixz materialized in front of them, Serisdo and Thorvon right behind him. He cast his wings to either side in a welcoming gesture.

_"__It has been over a week since we all gathered inside of the throne room. I welcome you all..."_

Adrian absentmindedly twirled his iron frying pan around in a circle.

"So, what's the big announcement, partner?" he spoke, his southern accent a familiar sound in their ears.

Farixz cast his gaze around the room, observing the horrific paintings spread across the walls of the Unforgiven Spawn.

_"__I have called you here today because you shall be beginning your vital journey in only a short while—twenty-three minutes, to be exact."_

Kelsey's eyes widened and she held out her hands in shock, saying fretfully,

"We're already leaving? But why so early?"

_"__Heroes, there has been an urgent forthcoming vision from Serisdo that I cannot ignore and it regards the safety of Sycallion the Sixth. It is against the rules of this prophecy for me to inform you exactly what, but what I can say is that it involves the greatest evil entity the universe has come to know."_

"The Glitch?" suggested Vanessa.

Kelsey shook her head as she recalled the speech that Farixz had given them long ago. A single name burned its letters into her mind as it became clear, and so she spoke.

"No, not the Glitch. Somebody infinitely worse than the Glitch."

They all turned to look at Kelsey in question.

"Who could be more a devil than the Glitch?" muttered Adrian, hoping there was no such thing.

Kelsey's face was sincerely grave as she lifted her eyes to each of them and replied,

"Only the Devil himself: Satan."

* * *

"99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer! Take one down, pass it around, 98 bottles of beer on the wall! 98 bottles of beer on the wall, 98 bottles of beer! Take one down—"

"Martin, just shut up."

The three of them, Jeff, Martin and JB, were meandering off into the wild jungle in search of the woman that JB had been talking about. As Jeff and JB walked side by side, staying far away from Martin, who was marching along happily while singing "99 Bottles of Beer" in a very hearty tone. JB looked over at Jeff with a concerned look and said,

"Why is he, um, mentally unstable? I mean, he tried to spit-roast me."

Jeff eyed Martin strangely, pondering this for a moment and then immediately came upon his answer.

"As he's said, he's been living off of mushrooms, so he must've eaten from a bad patch at one point, or something. I only realized this a half hour ago, but he's convinced himself that his name is Martin and not Mason, like his REAL name, so there must be some unnatural nutrients in his system that are messing with his brain."

JB pursed his lips as he took another glance over at Mason Mushroom, who was bending over and beginning to stop and smell the flowers. And speak with them. And taste them.

"Yes, that seems like a good explanation." he commented, raising an eyebrow. "But this old lady might be able to help get your, well, acquaintance here get some medical attention."

"Fair enough. Just as long as he doesn't sing the rest of his song, I'll be happy."

* * *

Auconi Diamondore was a very interesting fifteen-year-old to figure out what with his appearance coupled with his personality. His skin was tan and his muscles were plenty, giving him an odd appearance considering he was only 5'7" and 110 lbs. His body was quite battle-worn and there was a noticeable scar going down his face, starting above his right temple and curving down to reach the top of his cheek. He was wearing a set of scuffed-up leather armor and carried a wooden pickaxe. Underneath his helmet was a full head of strangely green hair as well as piercing electric-blue eyes, which darted this way and that, always alert.

He'd been mining for a while, hoping to find something good with his measly little pickaxe. He would use his powers to make a better one, but he had his reasons not to. Auconi jumped down from a three-block ledge and landed roughly, breaking open the bottoms of his leather boots.

He breathed heavily in annoyance with the boots and took them off, staring at the split material. He chucked them aside, as they were now useless, and continued on. He was already near to starving, so the last thing he needed was to lose his armor, which was threatening to fall off as it was.

Suddenly, as he was about to turn left down another rugged hall of stone branching off from the main tunnel, he heard uneven breathing just around the corner. His whole body tensed and he quickly switched his pickaxe with a wooden sword. He quieted his breath, keeping himself well-hidden from whatever creature was around the corner. Finally, he decided that what he was hearing was the sound of a Creeper breathing. He mustered up all his focus and let his fighter instincts take control; he leapt from around the corner and charged!

But he was almost immediately stopped by the frightened scream of the creature around the corner. When he looked down below in that small cave and saw another Minecraftian lying there on the floor, crying with raspy breaths, he was frozen in shock. This girl, about fifteen, looked like she hadn't eaten in at least two days and that she'd just been in a fight. She had straight auburn hair down to her shoulders and a slim build, making her look younger than she was.

But before noticing all that, Auconi felt his stomach turn and his hormones flares. She was stripped down to just her bright-red panties and bra, exposing most of her body—her slender arms and legs, her cute belly with the piercing on her belly button, and her adorable pedicured feet. AND her rad boobs.

Still frozen in shock, Auconi felt himself become instantly fifty times sweatier, somehow. He just stood there, his mouth agape, drooling over the unfathomable sight before him. The girl on the ground was staring tearfully at him, her dark chocolate eyes reddened from the hours of weeping she'd endured.

"Who a-a-are you?" she whispered, her voice cracking.

Although his mind was running wild, Auconi couldn't bring himself to words. He opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water, but only a little unmanly squeak came out. She gritted her teeth at him and moaned,

"Please...take me...out..."

It took him a second, but Auconi finally mustered up his self-control and formed some words.

"I, uh, don't—"

"G-get me out! OUT!" she screamed, then lowered her head and started sobbing into the chilled cave floor.

Auconi was going to try and attempt to speak again when somebody else behind him shouted out unexpectedly,

"Eh, Auconi! Don't mind me, I'm just standing here, waiting while you take your bloody time!"

Auconi whirled around and saw his...acquaintance, Darcy, just standing there, leaning against the wall of the entrance tunnel he'd been in thirty seconds ago. Darcy was taller than him by three inches but as just as skinny. He had extremely tan skin and lanky limbs, his hands unusually nimble. His short, curly hair was colored dishwater blonde and could just barely be seen underneath his beige fedora. He was also wearing armor, only his was diamond and sparkling new.

"Let's get a move on!" he said, gesturing back down the tunnel.

Auconi didn't move a muscle, but instead started to ponder how Darcy couldn't see the near-to-naked hottie right behind him. A few seconds later, Darcy lowered his arms and sighed angrily, glaring at him.

"That means get off your fat date and c'mere, you dill!"

Darcy marched forward and made to grab Auconi's arm and drag him off, but then noticed the girl lying on the ground shaking. His eyes widened a lot, but he had more self-control than Auconi and kept himself composed.

"Well, I'll be grinning like a shot fox! We got ourselves what looks like a little chickie baby in her grundies!"

Ugh. He hated it when Darcy talked full-Australian; he had no idea what he was saying half the time. Coming to his senses, Auconi returned a glare at Darcy and muttered,

"Okay, enough. Let's just get her to our place so she can recover, okay? Then you can batter her with your stupid "Australian charm" all you want."

Darcy shrugged, got a greedy eyeful of the girl and replied,

"Alright, alright, don't leave me earbashed!"

He bent down on one knee and lifted the girl's chin so that their eyes locked for a moment.

"And what do they call you, mate?"

Controlling her quivering lips as well as she could manage, she murmured,

"Morgan Ironbars."

"Well then, Morgan," declared Darcy, helping her to her feet and grinning with poise. "my name's Darcy Lava! This bludger here's Auconi Diamondore."

She looked between the two of them, still afraid of their real intentions. This whole experience with Lalita had scarred her for life, so she wasn't about to trust anybody fully, yet.

"I j-just want to get out of here, please..." she whispered, her voice croaky.

Darcy's smile widened and he grasped her hand, leading her towards the tunnel with confidence.

"Veg out, Morgan. You look a bit peckish, so we've got lots of grub at our place to share."

Morgan was unsure about anything at the moment, but the idea of food got her stomach growling angrily at her, demanding satisfaction, so she went along with it. If worst came to worst she'd have to steal some armor, food and a weapon and run away during the night or whenever she could. It was better than staying in the cave, at least.

Meanwhile, behind the two of them, Auconi was grumbling about Darcy's immediate actions. He'd always been the more conservative one with girls, but Darcy was quick to everything, especially on this topic.

"Alright then, I'll just bloody follow you up this bloody tunnel 'til we get to the bloody top and help this bloody girl get some bloody food. Bloody, bloody, bloody, bloody." he mimicked.

As he followed behind the two of them, steaming, he wondered why he had even teamed up with Darcy in the first place. He and Darcy were not what you would call friends, exactly—more like partners, so to speak. He was even beginning to recall their first time meeting.

* * *

Auconi grinned with the astonishing adrenaline that coursed through his body. Despite the fact that the zombie horde was advancing on him from just twenty blocks away, the thrill for adventure stimulated all five of his senses, hardcore mode style. He loved that feeling!

"Auconi, get yourself together!"

He jerked his head to the side in alert and remembered his two friends, Hugo Ironore and Kirby Coalore. The three of them were hiding in the shadows of a small cave entrance in the ground, keeping hidden from the sudden onslaught of zombies that had attacked them minutes ago. A few seconds was all it took for him to register that it was Kirby that had snapped him to attention; Kirby's voice always cracked. He looked really serious about getting the heck out of there and he said,

"We've got to get back to Outpost Ten or we'll be this horde's dinner! Get your head out of the fight and let's escape through this cave while they're still far enough away!"

The grin widened even further as Auconi hoisted his sword up and declared,

"You underestimate our abilities, Kirby! We can take them all, pick 'em off one by one if we need to! Only a coward would run away from such a potential battle!"

Kirby reached over and grabbed his collar suddenly, pulling him in so they were staring at each other dead in the face.

"Listen to me! If we don't get out of here, the zombies will definitely outnumber us! Hugo's been bitten in the head, my weapon's junk now and you've got a nasty, probably infected, gash on your face!"

Auconi lifted a hand to his face and cringed as his fingers made contact with the bleeding crevice that stretched from his right temple to his cheek, his hand coming back spattered red. He'd received this injury from a tank of a zombie sporting full diamond armor plus a blade of the same material. Auconi glanced down to see Hugo resting up against the wall beneath the ledge of the tunnel's drop-off. There was a small hole gored into his head where a zombie had bitten through his skull and tried to suck his brains out. Even though confidence filled him in the moment, Auconi gave an involuntary shudder at the sight.

"You can stay here if you want to die, but I'm taking responsibility for once and getting me and Hugo the fudge out of here!" exclaimed Kirby, looking accusingly at Auconi.

Auconi really was quite shocked at how Kirby was acting. Usually, this guy was fun-loving and full of spirited energy, but now he was acting all solemn and crap. This totally ruined his fiery mood and so his grin was replaced with a grimace.

"Fine!" Auconi spat, glowering at Kirby with a sudden anger. "You can flee like a weakling and I'll stay here to fight for all that is good in this world! I can only wish you good luck, friend."

Disappointed, he lowered his gaze to the stone floor on his last word, breaking eye contact with Kirby. He could only hear the uneven footsteps of his pal as he walked off into the blackness of the sloped tunnel, struggling with the heavyset body of Hugo leaning on him.

It was the fifteen groans and gurgles of the zombie horde that brought him back to full attention. He didn't know how much time had passed since Kirby had left with Hugo, but it must have been longer than he thought, because as he looked up above he was able to just barely dodge the zombie that fell into the hole with him. It was the tank zombie decked in diamond and it was leading the other zombies towards what it thought to be a free meal.

Auconi slashed at the zombie's diamond armor as it advanced, returning with slower stabs of the sword. He was able to avoid the returning blade well enough, but finding a weak spot was difficult, because every time he tried to hit it, more zombies jumped in front and were sacrificed. So, Auconi continued to back up as he fended off the swarm. His diamond sword was already about to snap in half from its excessive use over the past month, so he was pretty much running out of options.

For the first time in his life, Auconi Diamondore decided that he was going to run from a fight that, even though he wished it to be true, he could not hope to win.

He turned around and sprinted down the tunnel, hastily placing torches in front of him as he went so he wouldn't run into more trouble unexpectedly. Unfortunately, he'd been so focused on getting away that he didn't notice the tall cliff in front of him; he took one step too many and unexpectedly found himself falling into the pitch-blackness of a gigantic cavern.

He freefell for almost seventy blocks before splashing hard down in an underground lake. He could only see a faint orangish light above from where he'd fallen from, but he was so far away that even the cries of the zombies weren't loud enough to reach his ears.

All of a sudden, there were footsteps of someone walking near him and the flare of lava dissipated the darkness around him. Using his little bit of strength left after the impact, Auconi turned his head lightly to see the person standing at the stone rim of the murky water.

"Crikey! How'd you end up down here, mate?"

Auconi didn't answer; the wind had been knocked out of him from the impact of the water. He was still trying to regain some breath as it was. When there came no reply, the Austrian dude stepped down into the water and waded out towards him, eventually having to swim another three blocks.

"You better not be bloody cactus, or I'll have to call myself a drongo for getting my draks wet."

In his mind, though, this was basically what Auconi was thinking:

_"__...the heck?"_

* * *

**Just because I'm paranoid, can you all just tell me how you like the three-way storyline? I might change things about it in the future, but I'd like a second opinion.**

**Now for QAA!**

**To Mushroomman: How were you in the jungle and the final battle at the same time?**

Mason: "Which battle are you referring to?"

**To the Glitch: I bite my thumb at you, sir!**

The Glitch: _"Do not fret; I will bite your thumb for you! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"_

**To the merry band of universe savers: Stop procrastinating. The end of all existence is dangerously close.**

Norman: "If I had my way, we would have gone immediately after arriving in this weird dimension. I'm going to avenge my son! The Glitch is definitely going to be brought to its knees and I am going to make sure that I am the one responsible for it being deleted!"

Liz: "I'm extremely of anxious about going back into the Minecraft Dimension now that I'm a teenager again. In my time spent there, I endured so many horrible things, probably more than everyone else. I had my eye gouged out, sexually assaulted by a slimy prisoner on that skeleton ship and I was kidnapped and tickle-tortured by Slenderman for a half hour straight. Besides that, I got roughed up so many times emotionally and physically, so I had possibly more bad experiences than good. These thoughts and more are what are preventing me from feeling safe in the world again. Thankfully, though, I've got Norman."

Adrian: "Returning ter Minecraft might jus' be the thang I need ter git my monster-slayin' skills back! I'm lookin' forward ter it, ah'll admit. I mean, there's the matter o' the Glitch being out dere, but ah'm willing to take ma chances."

Kelsey: "No, no, no...I can't go back to Minecraftia without Mark! First, I died and came here, but then I met up with him again for those blissful weeks and it was heaven! Then, Mark died this time, only now he's surely gone forever! I'll be stuck thinking about him the entire time I'm there, I just know it."

Astrid: "Hell yeah! I can't wait to get back there! Just imagine all the possibilities! Danger! Adventure! Monsters! Adrenaline-pumping fights to the death! And besides, we'll be going to Blocks Vegas! BLOCKS VEGAS! Do you have any idea how much I've wanted to go there?! When I do leave Blocks Vegas, I'm just gonna be like, "Well, f*** the old saying, I'm telling all my friends about what happened in Vegas so they can be strawberry jelly!"

Vanessa: "Personally, I feel rather torn about returning. I would like to see to it that Rexum does not die in vain, but at the same time I am highly skeptical about the dangers out there, even with my magic. Magic from this dimension cannot possibly be even remotely close to the power of that of a dimensional virus. There are good and bad sanctions here and I'm currently trying to weigh the outcomes before we depart."

**To Doughbelly: Awww! Don't feel lonely. I'll play chase with you!**

Doughbelly: *wonders where the voice in his head is coming from*

**To the Glitch****:****  
That's cool, but when I'm decked out, it is you Im gonna slay. That's cool, but when I'm decked out, it is you Im gonna slay.  
I threw a splash potion,  
Swing my sword with downward motion,  
Drown you in a lava ocean.  
Help me, help me, I need more supplies.  
Drop sand on your head,  
Then shoot you 'til your dead,  
Every time I hit you, you turn red.  
Help me, help me, my power will rise.  
Blow you to the moon,  
Its gonna be day soon,  
I can make lightning strike you.  
Help me, help me, I need more supplies.  
Push you from a height,  
Multiplayer boss fight  
I attack when the time is right.  
Help me, help me, my power will rise,  
And I will make you die.**

The Glitch: _"Ah...alright then."_

**To Blackberry: /fix Blackberry, /tp Blackberry Norman**

/dimensioncode/: _You do not have permission to use this command. You do not have permission to use this command._

**Whew! Lots of questions, there. Well, how about another ****_Sugar Lords _****bit?**

* * *

Pastrinator64 raised the angle of his flight, leading everyone upward until they passed the top layer of clouds. Floating just above the browned white blanket that hovered low over the planet, Pastrinator64 activated his sugar-level x-ray vision and scanned in all directions. Instantly, a giant red blotch only about a mile away appeared in his vision and he blinked rapidly, making sure that this was legit. He deactivated his powers and glanced back at his team.

"Alright, guys! This thing's just a mile north of here, so it's time to inspect. Lower your power as much as you can; whatever it is might've already noticed us when we were coming in."

They all did so, using another of Master Mapley's techniques, Kakin Bēru, that allowed them to lower their power levels to that of a passing bird. Pastrinator64 also deactivated his Super Pasty mode by grabbing the Powertart and sliding it back in his pocket.

"ILTRTGS and Kyle, you get underneath this thing. Nwinds and Volcanic, you get above it. Pixelized and Pikale, you split up and take it from the right and left. Luvr and I will get out in front of it. I want all of you to use Seishin-Tekina E to get an image of the entity so we can assess it from all angles, then retreat five miles south of here so we can register what this thing truly is. Got it?"

They all murmured in agreement before splitting up, flying in all different directions to do their duty.

* * *

**I'm having a lot of fun giving all of their abilities names. It's just like Dragon Ball Z only a whole lot weirder. :3**

**Well, that's all for now! I hope you enjoyed chapter number four, and I'll see you all LATER!**

**This is Pastrinator64, your fellow writer and reader, signing out!**

***throws sugar bomb and disappears behind its cloud of fine white sugar***

**..Goodbye for now...**

**~Pastrinator64 [~]**


	5. Ch 5: Her New Calling

**Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter from ****_Hourglass!_**

**On an entirely random note, I found something very rare the other day: Bobobo-Bo Bo-Bobo on DVD! It might be the absolutely most pointless anime of all time, but it's so unlikely that I'd see something like that again and I decided to get it. I also got Dragon Ball Z and Yu-Gi-Oh!, so that's even better! :D**

**Anyway, let us get on with the replies!**

Replies To Reviews

**Volcanic the hedgehog: **Mmmmmmm...nah, I'm just weird. XD

**Nwinds: **1. That was a confusion for both me and probably more readers like you who wondered the same thing. He's actually from the South, not the West.

2. Well, I've been having fun with the return of Mason Mushroom, so yeah, probably! I love cameos. If you have suggestions you're free to give them.

3. I'll just have to keep away from having too many characters and I guess I'm good.

4. Awesome! Thanks for checking up on it all! :D

5. Sure, I'll make all of the snippets one big chapter, or two, or even three depending on their length, then continue it at the end. Sound good?

6. Ohhhhh! I didn't realize that before. Now I actually understand your name, because before I was always like, "Nwinds? What kind of name is that?"

7. I'm only concerned about getting the actual character of Satan accurate. I don't want it to suck and I don't want it to be the same sarcastic evil glee that the Glitch has. I need to make them differ somehow.

**spark n' Jetz: **The whole "rad boobs" thing is actually a line from an episode of Bravest Warriors. Ever seen it? By the way, I'll keep in mind to refrain from having an overload of characters; in fact, I said this exact same to **Nwinds** in the review above. ...Psst! Hey, **Nwinds, **I know you saw your name in bold and are now reading this! XD Sorry, couldn't resist.

**Just a brief announcement, everyone! I would like to clarify that I will NOT, repeat NOT be accepting any more OC's at this time, but will be sometime in the future. Keep on the lookout for any further notifications from me on the topic if you really want to see your character make a debut! Thank you! :)**

**Get ready for a little bit of Fourth Wall madness, because here comes CHAPTER 5!**

**Now, let the story commence!**

* * *

_Chapter 5: Her New Calling_

"Satan?! We can' beat up a godfersaken demon!"

Farixz hovered past them absentmindedly, not looking back as he said,

_"__Unfortunately, Ms. Ice is correct."_

Adrian closed his eyes tight as a headache came upon him.

"Darn it all. I can' believe it!" he muttered, still in disbelief.

Norman gritted his teeth and whirled his head at Farixz, who was now hovering in circles around them. He ran up to the Spirit and stopped in front of him, clenching his fists.

"You mean to tell me that we're going to have to fight Satan?! The Antichrist?! The Beast?!"

Liz ran up beside Norman and looked up at Farixz as well, angry and confused.

"Farixz, there's no way we can fight Satan! It's SATAN!"

"Yeah, we ain't exorcists, y'know!" piped up Adrian from behind them.

Farixz lowered his gaze to them and observed the emotion in their expressions for a moment before speaking again.

_"__You will not be fighting Satan, exactly."_

Norman raised an eyebrow and replied,

"What do you mean?"

_"__I have already explained some of this before, I will for the sake of the Readers who joined this series just recently."_

A scream from behind them spliced through the air and the three of them turned in alertness to the noise. Astrid was on the ground and there was a large transparent shard of what look liked blue-tinted glass stuck in her right arm.

"What the hell?!" she screamed, taking out the shard with a grimace and staring at it.

She stood up, otherwise unharmed, and turned in a full 360 for the source of the shard. All of them gasped when similar shards of the strange glass appeared all around them on the floor.

"Wha...?"

Suddenly, a portal appeared three paces to the Astrid's left and out stepped a very burly man that resembled John Cena, only with a beard. He was wearing what looked like a janitor's uniform and was carrying a chrome hammer similar to something that Thor's, only it had a big WH printed in navy blue on each side.

_"__Phil! Old friend, how has the business been treating you?" _inquired Farixz, spreading his wings in a welcoming gesture.

The Fourth Wall Repairman—real name being Phil Drake—shot a glare at Farixz and shouted,

"Horrible, thanks for asking! I'm breaking the Fourth Wall just by saying this, but the Author recently found that dumb anime Bobobo-Bo Bo-Bobo on DVD at a pawn shop yesterday and he started watching it this morning, so I keep having to come in and fix the Fourth Wall because the idiots in that show can't stop breaking it OVER AND OVER!"

He then jerked his head down at Astrid and gave her a nasty scowl; she returned his expression with an even nastier one.

"And now, just a few hours later, I have to come back into this series again and try not to strangle YOU for breaking the Fourth Wall! I thought that after I left in VOiD you would've gotten the message, but evidently not!" he growled, pointing out the wall shards all over the floor and adding, "I've got to clean up all this crap now because of you!"

He lifted the silver Wall Hammer in his hand and held it in Astrid's face, but she didn't even flinch. In fact, she snickered a little when, just by being near the Fourth-Wall-induced cut in her arm, the Wall Hammer accidently sealed up the wound perfectly.

"You, young lady, had better not continue to break the Fourth Wall or I'll have to come back here and teach you a real lesson!" he spat, furious with both her and the fact that he'd just healed his least favorite individual.

Astrid grinned deviously, paused for one silent moment, and then cupped her hands to her mouth.

"WE ARE INSIDE OF A BOOK THAT IS CALLED _HOURGLASS _AND IT IS BEING WRITTEN BY A HUMAN ON PLANET EARTH IN ANOTHER DIMENSION! RIGHT NOW THE WORDS I'M SAYING ARE ACTUALLY JUST WORDS HE TYPED UP ON A COMPUTER!"

Instantly, the shards of the Fourth Wall exploded unnecessarily and got their dusty particles all over the entire throne room. The Fourth Wall Repairman clenched his fists and shook with rage, screaming,

"DARN YOU, YOU LITTLE—"

He made a move to grab Astrid around the throat, but she evaded him and started running in the other direction, whooping mockingly.

"Come and get me, Buttbeard!"

The Fourth Wall Repairman screamed with fury and charged forward at super speed for such a massive guy. He was immediately upon her; he grabbed her by her collar and lifted her up, Wall Hammer raised by a shaky hand.

_"__ENOUGH!" _exclaimed Farixz.

Using his powers, he put a permanent barrier between the two. The Fourth Wall Repairman smashed his Wall Hammer against the barrier, but it still didn't do anything.

_"__Phil, I am sending you back to 44444__th__ Dimension so you can return to your duties! This is a mess that I myself shall clean up."_

Farixz clapped his wings together and the Fourth Wall Repairman disappeared in a gray mist. He proceeded to zoom over to Astrid and tower over her in anger.

_"__Astrid Silverfishstone, Hero Four of the Divination of Dimensions! You must control yourself at all times or mistakes such as these will occur without the odds being in your favor! Be thankful that this happened when I was here or you would have perished!"_

He turned on his—heel?—and glided towards Norman and Liz. Astrid flipped him off from behind.

_"__Lower your finger, impudent minor." _snapped Farixz, who knew exactly what everyone was doing at all times with his seemingly infinite power.

In response, she raised both instead. Farixz sighed at her rudeness, but carried on. He appeared to be going towards Norman and Liz, but he passed them up and continued, stopping moments later at Vanessa, who looked up suddenly.

"Yes, Farixz the First?" she said, keeping herself from stuttering.

He looked down upon her with utter seriousness before uttering the following words.

_"__You may be unpleased to know of this, but you will not be joining Norman Cobweb and the other heroes on their journey to retrieve the last three Spirits In Between."_

Vanessa's eyes widened in shock and she opened her mouth in a slight gape. She shook her head slowly, so very confused.

"I know. Rexum told me." she murmured, solemn about it, almost.

_"__The power within you is a combination of Rexum the Wizard's and a once Dark magic that became your own upon contact with that book Cantatis. Now you are combined, and that means that Rexum has embedded its soul within yours. You are the next predecessor to fulfill the tasks that require the type of magic you possess. An alternate path has been chosen for you, for you will be taking over the job that Rexum once had: protecting the world of Minecraftia as a whole."_

Norman ran forward and grasped Vanessa's hand instinctively.

"Farixz, you cannot possibly let my daughter go out on her own on another mission!" he shouted.

He tried to sound angry, but his voice cracked on his last word, embarrassingly enough.

_"__Damn it all, puberty." _he thought, grinding his teeth.

Farixz couldn't help but suppress a smile upon listening in to Norman's thoughts, though it vanished a few seconds later.

_"__You must understand that this is not my doing. I was guided by the infinite Arabaloca when I wrote the Divination of Dimensions and it did not specify that a witch was one of the adolescent heroes. I am sorry, Norman, but she has other obligations. While you and your fellow heroes of the prophecy are out in search of Froace, Firzon and Sycallion, who will be there to protect the rest of the people of Minecraftia now that Rexum has passed from the physical world?"_

Norman was silent for a moment as the thought came to mind. He'd never thought about who looked after the Minecraft Dimension—or 64th Dimension, or Minecraftia, or whatever you wanted to call it. He just assumed that the Spirits In Between did it all, but then supposed that they couldn't do that with every dimension and just had another powerful figure keep a watch over the dimension. Perhaps there were other figures like this Rexum character out there? Could there possibly be beings out there with the power to protect entire dimensions besides the Spirits?

_"__Norman,"_

He snapped back to attention; he must've phased out a little while he was thinking. He lowered his head a little in discomfiture and murmured,

"Sorry, Farixz." he raised his head back up again and glanced over at Vanessa, whose face was almost as serious as Farixz's. "But Vanessa, if you're protecting the Minecraft Dimension, who'll protect you? It's not logical to just go out there alone."

Vanessa turned and looked up at her father, her dark brown eyes alight with a surprising glimmer that he'd never seen before in her. All solemnity had vanished from her expression as she spoke,

"Father, if it is my duty to finish what Rexum began, then it is my personal priority as well. Rexum was the single-greatest figure I have ever followed and he has taught me several vital things that could have never learned besides through his own teachings. It is my main concern that the people who brought him to his demise are brought to theirs so that no others may suffer in the same way."

Norman froze at how intense her tone of voice was; she was really serious about this. He wished more than anything that he could've met this Rexum person.

"But if you get hurt—"

"As long as I have Rexum's power combined with my own then there is nothing for me to fear. If Farixz believes I am ready to protect this dimension, then I have to do what's right."

Norman shook his head incredulously. This was not the Vanessa he knew. The daughter he remembered was shy and shut herself off form the world as much as possible. His child was becoming a delinquent! He was about to scold her for her rash actions, but Liz put her hand on his shoulder from behind.

"Norman, let her go. If our little girl is willing to sacrifice her time and energy to save the universe and if it is absolutely required in order to keep this dimension safe, then I'm sad to say that we're going to have to let her do what she wants."

Norman scowled, greatly disliking the idea of his daughter going off on an adventure by herself. Finally, he turned to her and said,

"Before I let you go anywhere, you tell me about Rexum. Who was he?"

Surprisingly enough, Vanessa actually smiled at the question. She lifted Cantatis, which was in her right hand, and held it with both. She pushed her red-rimmed glasses up her nose with her ring finger and flipped through the pages to the 64th page.

_"__Anima contactus." _she whispered.

Norman jumped a little when he watched the book in her hand shapeshift into a glowing red mirror made of some kind of solid, transparent, red material. He greatly disliked witchcraft as he found it both sketchy and unchristian-like. Vanessa handed the mirror to Norman, who grasped it in his weird little fourteen-year-old hands and stared at his own younger reflection. Without warning, his face swirled and contorted into another and he gasped aloud.

An ancient-looking man stared back at him from the mirror. His face was worn by many years, though his icy-blue eyes had the vigilance of a wary feline. A full head of countless braids of musty-looking gray hair fell over his shoulder and down his back and, from as much as Norman could see, he was wearing very well-used green robes.

"Ahhhhhhhh..." he gaped, eyes as big as dinner plates.

"You must be Norman Cobweb's younger form." murmured Rexum, his voice dry and tired. "I am pleased to finally meet you face-to-face."

Vanessa gestured at the mirror with an I-told-you-so smile.

"This is Rexum, father." said Vanessa simply.

"How...?"

* * *

Auconi and Darcy emerged from the sloping tunnel and stepped out onto the sandy surface of a small beach. Behind them, as well as to their right and left, was a nearly endless jungle biome. The only thing in front of them was the great ocean blue, its border unable to be seen by the naked eye.

Darcy was currently carrying Morgan on his back; she'd passed out from exhaustion soon after they started their way back up. He kept flashing grins back at Auconi, looking smug as ever. Auconi would always return him with a good-for-freakin-you sneer.

Finally, though, they walked forward to the beach's edge and their feet hit jungle planks. Both of them were walking down an enormous wooden walkway towards a mansion floating over the water. He and Darcy found that, although they disliked each other at times, they worked well together when building, and so they combined their talents to create a gigantic house that looked fashioned using a mod: four bedrooms, four bathrooms, two kitchens, a spacious rec room, a comfy living room as well as an upper and lower deck.

They were still working on the house's defense mechanisms, but after a month of building they'd finally finished the house itself. It was absolutely worth it, because they had all the room they wanted. The walkway was about twenty blocks in length and five in width, which he and Darcy cleared in a matter of seconds. Darcy stopped at the door and gracefully lifted up his foot, flicking the six levers in front of him according to the house's entry code: up, up, down, up, down. The diamond door clicked open and he entered, Auconi following close behind.

Auconi trailed Darcy as the Australian carried Morgan up the stairs and down the short hallway decked in Glowstone lamps. Turning left into the third bedroom ahead, Darcy laid Morgan down on the bed, covering her up with the blanket. She sighed in her sleep as she felt the comforting warmth of the pillow and quilt. Darcy tiptoed about the room, gathering clothes from his...his...late friend, which he figured would fit her well, and laid them out at the foot of the bed. When he was finished, he stepped back next to Auconi and gazed at Morgan.

"Poor Sheila. Scared straight, I'll be she was." he murmured, a smile on his face.

Auconi was still glaring at Darcy; when he noticed, he turned and stared right back.

"What're you looking at, eh? Now, I'm trying my hardest not to be a downright knocker, but you really should be rapt! We found ourselves an attractive chickie baby down in a cave who was nearly in the nuddy and now she's gotta trust us from now on, mate! The possibilities stand out like dog's balls!"

Auconi threw up a little in his mouth and he muttered in reply,

"Don't ever say that again."

Darcy shook his head and gave a mocking laugh.

"What? It's not like I'm saying I wanna have a naughty with the—"

"Darcy, just shut up already." Auconi snapped, turning on his heel and walking out of the room in annoyance.

He made his way into the kitchen and opened the nearest cupboard, snatching up an apple and bit into it furiously, taking out his anger on the bright red fruit. He felt really stupid doing it, but it helped get his irritation out. He used to end up kicking a wall or something whenever he got mad, which was a lot of the time because many things got on his nerves, but that would end in him injuring himself and so he decided to turn to food instead; now he ate when he was upset.

After staring at the apple core for about five minutes, still pretty mad at Darcy, Auconi remembered the leather boots he'd thrown aside back down in the cave.

_"__Damn!" _he suddenly thought to himself as he stood up quickly and rushed out of the kitchen into the living room.

He still needed those boots! They were special to him because they once belonged to a now-deceased family member of his, but in the moment he'd been so annoyed with them splitting that he'd tossed them carelessly aside. He had to find them before they despawned, otherwise a piece of his family history would be lost!

He almost made it to the door exiting into the sun-drenched outdoors, but Darcy came down the stairs nearby moments later and said,

"Hey, what's the rush now, you fruit loop?"

"Nothing!" Auconi shouted back, opening the front door. "I left something in the cave and I have to quick get it back! Kay, bye!"

As soon as he left the house, Darcy rolled his eyes and sat down on the stairs in boredom, muttering,

"Good onya."

* * *

Somewhere else in Minecraftia, Jeff, JB and Mason were still wandering through the jungle. It'd been a couple hours, so Jeff was starting to get paranoid. As JB was helping him up a rugged slope covered in slippery grass, he noticed again how much his left leg hurt from carrying his weight. He'd be willing to give up his only leg just for a chance to switch and use his non-existent right for a change. About halfway up the slope, his knee buckled and Jeff toppled over, falling on his back on the side of the hill. He panted, sweat dripping down his neck, dotting his gray polo. He painfully craned his neck to look up at JB as he was being lifted back up into a standing position by him.

"Are you sure the lady is here? I'm a tough guy, but even I have my limits. Hopping badly injured through the jungle on only one leg is taking its toll on my entire body."

JB's strong build helped him lift Jeff up, who was taller and even stronger than he was, and carry him over his back. He breathed heavily as he trekked up the hill and replied,

"Trust me, we're almost there. She'll be able to help you get your leg back. She knows Konami Kokumajutsu, see."

"What...is that?" gasped Jeff, taking deep breaths to satisfy his strained lungs.

"It's a special kind of magic having to do with the code of everything in this dimension. She can retrieve deleted code and reinstall it at will. I think that's how she describes it, at least."

Jeff definitely disliked the idea of being tested on with sorcery, but weighing the consequences of going on with just one leg, he knew they were too great for him to refuse the opportunity. He felt like a whiny little kid asking, but he said what he was thinking anyway.

"Are we almost there?" he moaned, feeling a little lightheaded all of a sudden.

JB chuckled a little at the tone of his voice and replied,

"Yes, we are. She's just over this hill here, I think."

A minute or two dragged on by, but finally they reached the top of the hill. JB glanced down the other side of the hill and grinned toothily upon seeing what looked like a quaint little cottage raised above a pond at the bottom of the slope.

"We're here! The old lady lives just down there in that cottage." he said, pointing down at the house.

Jeff lifted his head and caught sight of the lodge, immediately sighing in relief. FINALLY! And THEN, Jeff's head snapped back up in alertness. He jerked his head left and right frantically, observing the surrounding trees.

"Wait, what happened to Mason?!" he questioned abruptly.

As if on cue, a horrified shriek echoed from inside the cabin.

"Oh, my apologies, madam! Perhaps I should have knocked!"

"GET OUT, YOU PEEPING TOM! I'LL BLAST YOU TO HELL!"

Without warning, Mason came crashing out of the window covered in flames, screaming his head off, and disappeared in a cloud of smoke just before touching the water below. There was a tense silence for a moment, and JB glanced up at Jeff, who looked just about as frightened as he was at the moment.

"She seems nice." whispered Jeff, unsure beyond compare.

"She is, just don't make her mad." replied JB.

"I'll keep that in mind."

* * *

**What happened to Mason?! He just went...poof. Well, I hope wherever he went has mushrooms.**

**Anyhow, time for QAA!**

**To Doughbelly: *gives fun toys***

Doughbelly: *sits down sadly as he stares at his fun toys* _"Master gone for business trip. No one to play with. Toys too small for giant dragon like me..." _*whimpers miserably and lays his head down*

**Hm. Not much QAA this time, huh? No questions, guys? If you have any, just ask away! :)**

**Now then! Here's another snippet from ****_Sugar Lords!_**

* * *

Left of the gigantic mysterious figure, Pixelized was gliding slowly towards the figure—just enough to be able to see it. He knew he was concealed well, so he was not nearly as worried about being detected.

"Man, this thing's gotta be pretty awesome if it's got a power level like this." he said to himself.

Suddenly, Pixelized stopped in midflight and felt his blood run cold. Barely a couple hundred feet in front of him, a cloud gave way to a massive creature. What looked like a five-hundred-foot-long red alien was floating there, similar to a gargantuan crimson lizard-like animal. Its torso was decked in gaping holes that emitted a strange fume that smelled surprisingly like cinnamon rolls. It was a quite deceiving scent, for this creature was long, slimy and contorted.

A tail covered in layered prickling scales that raised up slightly, supposedly to be used to seriously damage its enemies, lolled out from its backside. It remained in the air by some unknown force, for it had no wings of any sort. The head was small compared to the body and was shaped in a form almost inspired from the monster in the movie _Alien._

"Oh mercy..."

Coming to his senses, Pixelized remembered what the task at hand was and, with shaking hands, put his two index fingers to his head, one above each eye, and whispered,

"Seishin-Tekina E."

He blinked quickly and heard the snap of an old-fashioned camera inside his ears, and his head felt a little buzz. He'd taken the mental picture and quickly decided to contact Pixelized. The two of them may have been separated momentarily, but their souls were connected by the force of an Author; at will, they could speak to each other through their psyches.

_"__Pikale! Have you taken the mental picture yet?"_

_"__Yep! This thing's freakin huge!" _replied Pikale's nervous voice. _"I think I'm g-g-gonna leave th-th-th...after-r-r a-a-a-a...d-dude! It's b-brea—"_

Without warning, Pixelized's connection with Pikale ended.

"Pikale?!" he shouted aloud, even slapping his head as a dumb attempt to get the connection back; surprisingly, though, he could just barely hear Pikale say a few words again.

_"__...m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-mov-v-v-v-ving! G-GET OU-OU-OU...OU-OU...THERE N-N-N-NOW B-B-B-BEF—"_

The connection was lost a second time and Pixelized became even more frustrated. Before he could try and regain connection, he heard a bloodcurdling screech and jerked his head back up in attention. The creature, whatever it was, was look right in his direction, its horned nostrils flaring as it sniffed the air.

"Oh...God..."

It's beady red eyes landed right on Pixelized, and so it screeched a second time, making Pixelized slap his hands over his ears.

"OH GOD! NOOOOO!"

Pixelized raised his power level to its highest and forced all power into his flying abilities, rocketing downward into the clouds below. This monster, unfortunately, was right behind him, though behind it was everyone else who were now in pursuit.

The chase was on.

* * *

**Oho! Now THIS is getting interesting! Will Pixelized survive?! I KNOW, HA! XD**

**Well, that's all for now! I hope you enjoyed chapter number five, and I'll see you all LATER!**

**This is Pastrinator64, your fellow writer and reader, signing out!**

***throws sugar bomb and disappears behind its cloud of fine white sugar***

**..Goodbye for now...**

**~Pastrinator64 [~]**


	6. Ch 6: Slim Chances

**Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter from _Hourglass! _Apologies for the wait, but I've been super distracted lately...oh wait, that's, like, all the time. But still, the end of my school year is coming and I've been pretty socially active, which is by far one of my best accomplishments. Yeah, that sounded kind of sad, but true. XD**

**Anyway, on with the replies!**

Replies to Reviews

**spark n' jetz: **Broke your heart? Well! I wasn't expecting so much heartache for Doughbelly, because everybody's doing it.

**Volcanic the hedgehog: **PARADOX! XD

**Nwinds: **1. I try. It's hard, but I try.

2. EVIL: Every Villain Is Lemons XD

3. Uh, Kelsey? Her block power is ice.

4. I love having the Fourth Wall Repairman! So many obvious paradoxes that I choose to create yet leave unexplained. :D

5. (Answered in QAA)

6. He's meant to be a jerk in the beginning, but now he's supposed to be all mushroom-crazy and generally unstable, but with a bit of his old Englishman personality.

7. Did I say Pikale died? I didn't! I mean, that's not to say he didn't die, but I'm not revealing anything. ;D You like it, huh? I think the whole dramatic aspect is building up, so that's nice. I will be combining it all at the end into several chapters for an easier read, by the way.

8. *radio static* Pastrinator64, over! XD

**D4sssy: **Well, I first noticed his interesting appearance. After that, I liked the idea of having an anger-issue guy not as bad as Danny, but easily ticked off. I dunno! I just like him, now! Thanks for the OC! :D

**Nwinds: **Hi! Glad you checked up on me, because, coincidentally, I was actually just finishing up the chapter when I noticed your review.

**FINALLY! Now that I've killed you all with my procrastination, here's the sixth chapter to _Hourglass._**

**Now, let the story commence!**

* * *

_Chapter 6: Slim Chances_

JB leapt athletically down from a small ledge and landed oddly gracefully at the foot of the hill with Jeff on his back and everything. As he and Jeff were approaching the raised cabin above the pond, Jeff muttered,

"Couldn't we find some other witch to visit? I mean, I know that Mason was acting like, well, himself, but I don't want to end up disappearing like he did."

"Like I said, just don't make her angry. If you don't give her a reason to banish you then she won't." JB assured him.

"Banish?" he replied, apprehensive.

"Yeah, she'll send you off wherever she feels is necessary depending on how much she dislikes you. Wherever that Mason went must be pretty bad, I'm guessing."

* * *

"SKREE!"

Mason's eyes snapped open just in time to see a gigantic ball of flame plummeting down at him. He rolled out of the way with a grunt and was still blasted three blocks down a hot, rocky hill. Tumbling all the way down, Mason couldn't control his own body considering his body fat, and ended up crashing right into a wall at the bottom. Dizzily, he looked up and saw a giant, white, tentacled creature floating up over the peak of the red hill in front of him. He blinked a couple times and, as his vision cleared, opened his mouth in surprise as another fireball was shot his way.

"SKREE!" shrieked the Ghast, its tiny red eyes glowing with instinctive hatred.

Mason scrambled as fast as his stout legs could carry him, throwing himself out of the way as a hole was blasted right where he was a second ago. He ran around the corner of the uneven Netherrack wall and panted, not daring to look back at the beast.

"Good grief, I'm in the Nether!"

* * *

"Wait a minute! Didn't she say, "I'll blast you to Hell?"

"Oh, look at that, we're here!"

They had already arrived at the doorstep of the old witch lady's shack over the pond. JB lifted a hand and knocked ever so lightly.

"WHAT?!"

He recoiled, remembering that she was already mad.

"Matilda, it's me, Johnnykins!"

Jeff couldn't help suppress a snicker.

"Johnnykins?" he inquired, a grin on his face.

He rolled his eyes and explained,

"She favors me a lot. I'm just about the only person she's ever met who she actually liked. She appreciates me for my, well, gentlemanliness. She says," he said, and began to quietly quote her in a high-pitched tone. "that people nowadays ain't got no respect for one another! Or gumption!"

A few seconds past before the old witch Matilda's answer came.

"Oh! Johnnykins, is that really you? Your voice has gotten so deep since last time I saw you! Come in, I was just making chicken pot pies!"

JB pushed the door open with his foot, bending over as he stepped through the doorway so that Jeff wouldn't smack his head like the last time he was carried by somebody. Literally, as they entered the room, Jeff felt a wave of heat hit his face. The inside of the shack was basically just one small room with only two windows. Furnaces stacked up on every wall, leaving only two holes for the miniscule windows. Every one of the furnaces burned bright with flame, which explained the heat.

Sitting in the center of the room was Matilda, an elderly woman wearing a black shawl, the hood over her head despite the humidity in the room. Her face wizened and worn, she maintained an unpleasant scowl as though she'd smelled something sour. Her eyes had been closed for a moment, but they opened almost instantly and gazed up into Johnny's with a sudden joy, glowing almost magically with their golden hue.

"Johnnykins, it really is you!" she declared, struggling to her knees and shuffling towards him with open arms.

She was about to hug him when she noticed Jeff still on his back. Her smile returned to its original grimace as he muttered,

"Where'd you pick up THAT sorry sack of potatoes?"

"Matilda," JB spoke calmly, "this is my friend Jeff Ironblock. I brought him here because we are looking at a very serious injury that I might want you to check out."

Matilda eyed Jeff suspiciously, her eyes nearly burning into his soul. Finally, she threw up her hands and started towards the center of the room again.

"Fine, fine! But he ain't any more polite than that other tub of lard that barged in here, I'll...I'll...I'll blast him to Hell!"

"She sure does like blasting people." Jeff mumbled under his breath.

"WHAT WAS THAT, SNACK SHACK?!"

Jeff's head straightened up and he caught sight of the pure fury in her gold-colored eyes, which were positively gleaming with anger. Before he could say anything, she snapped at him instead.

"I do not like branding knee holes! See now, carving is such a better tactic and its ethicality far surpasses the latter!" she suggested, and turned to Johnny. "Johnnykins, don't you agree?"

"Johnnykins" kept up the act and nodded, smiled, etc. Jeff momentarily admired him for his ability to not get overly frustrated with this woman. There was an awkward pause, but Matilda broke it by sitting back down in the center of the room and beckoning them both.

"Alright, alright! Just bring the boy here!"

JB walked a mere five steps before crouching down, letting Jeff come off his back and sit on the ground. It felt weird to even sit, Jeff realized, and decided it best to prop himself up with his elbows.

"Alright, let's have a look, see." murmured Matilda, bending over slightly, putting on a pair of skinny black glasses, accenting her golden irises.

She unwound the blood-encrusted bandages over his right hip, making Jeff grit his teeth a bit. He had a high pain tolerance, but when it comes to losing a whole limb, even he should be allowed to grimace. Matilda examined the wound in an efficient manner, not wanting to let the blood flow return with the bandages off. Her expression changed from curious to surprised, then back to curious.

"Unusual! I see halved codes! As it appears here, the code that your right leg was once comprised of has been "fried," so to speak. Your leg was completely deleted by something viral, no doubt, and where it stops here is at your hip, leaving half-mutated destroyed code. Literally, the letters and numbers of your code have been split and are therefore preventing any possible regeneration of its late code."

She looked up at Jeff over her glasses and added,

"What did you do to your leg, sleazeball? Nasty bar fight, I'll bet..."

Jeff and JB paused to glance at each other. Matilda saw them looking and raised an eyebrow, muttering,

"You want me to go on another monologue, or were you actually listening?"

They turned back to her at the same time and shook their heads. More babble from the lady was the last thing they needed. Instead, JB replied to her question with his own.

"Can you fix his leg, though?"

Matilda sighed and took off her glasses, folding them and setting them beside her.

"Theoretically, yes. There is a very slight chance it will be able to be restored normally." was all she said.

Jeff didn't like the sound of that; he asked her himself,

"What are the chances of me getting my leg back, then?"

Matilda glared at him and snapped,

"I'm getting to that, sonny! Impatience won't help you! Anyhow, as I said, there is a very slight chance I will be able to restore your leg. VERY slight chance."

"And that chance is...?" inquired JB, reluctant to hear her answer.

"Roughly 0.001%, Johnnykins. You could imagine why I'm disinclined to doing this procedure."

"WHAAAAAAAAT?!" screamed Jeff, going all anime-like with widened eyes and a dropped jaw.

Matilda slapped his cheek and retorted,

"Don't yell at me, young man! You should be lucky I even agreed to let you in the house!"

Jeff stuttered as he spoke his next few words, rubbing the spot where she'd slapped him at the same time.

"W-what's the other 99.999% chance, then?"

"All of your code is restarted and you go back to whatever you were when you first came to be in the world."

"WHAAAAA—"

She slapped him a second time, spitting her words out at him.

"DON'T EVEN START! ...Now then, if you'll excuse me, I've got some chicken pot pies in the oven that need cooling."

* * *

"Stupid boots," muttered Auconi as he ran down a sloped tunnel, annoyed for not being able to find his leather boots.

Why did he drop them in the first place?! He was quite annoyed with himself for doing so. They had been his grandpa's pair and he insisted on wearing them rather than the typically-desired diamond ones. It was a long story, one that he tried to keep out of his mind as he trekked on down the warren.

He turned ninety degrees as the tunnel changed directions; within his sights came a square of four torches, just barely ten blocks away in front of him. His marker! He ran as fast as his legs could carry him towards the torches, then jumped down the ledge that appeared so suddenly, landing much more smoothly than the last time. He looked down to his right and, to his relief, saw the boots, both split in two, but still sitting there at the bottom of a drop-off he hadn't seen earlier.

He jumped down carefully, landing on different parts of the wall beneath his feet to keep himself from totally flattening himself into the ground far below. About fifteen seconds later, he sat down on the last rocky platform and slid right off, landing on his feet on the flat, stone floor. Whistling to himself, he strolled on over to his boots and plucked them up, then carefully stowed them in the Blockpack on his back. He was not about to lose them a second time.

Before he even thought of heading back up, a strange sight caught his eye. In the small room he'd come down into, the floor a few paces in front of him wasn't made of stone, but rather something like Netherrack. Curious, he walked over to it and kneeled down in front of it, and experimentally touched it with his finger. A massively painful burning sensation seared through his finger and he wrenched his hand back, screaming out loud.

"WHAT THE HECK?!" he shouted, staring at his now-blackened finger.

It hurt like hell, but Auconi was still more interested in the Netherrack-like floor in front of him. He was wary to not step on it and burn his shoes to a crisp, so he merely stared, wondering what the heck this stuff was. Eventually, he decided he would take Darcy down to come and look at it because, though he hated to say it, he needed another opinion, even if it was that kid's.

What also sucked was that he'd burned his right forefinger and he was right-handed. Now he had to mine to the surface with his non-dominant hand using his cruddy wooden pickaxe—another item of his grandfather's that he insisted on using.

It took him fifteen minutes longer than usual, but he eventually made it back up to the surface. Jumping up into the long grass growing up from the jungle floor, he wiped sweat off his brow and neck, then continued on forward for a mere thirty blocks. He exited the jungle onto their beach and instantly recognized his and Darcy's luxury home hovering over the water within his vision.

Auconi started towards the house, breathing heavily; he felt a little sick all of a sudden. As he was walking, he stared at his pointer finger, which had now crusted with blackened skin. Grimacing, he wondered,

_"Seriously! What the crap was that floor made of?"_

* * *

As Matilda was humming _Mellohi _in a quiet tone, she carefully removed the two mini chicken pot pies from the oven and turned to walk over to her spot in the center of the room, but was stopped abruptly by JB, who stood in her way.

"Matilda, I know you don't like this guy and I know I'm being a little rude, but we need you to do something about his leg. He has to get home to his family or they'll starve to death! He's told me this many times on the way here and said that you must be his last chance."

Jeff felt inwardly guilty about lying to JB just so he could build up a story, but it was something he felt he needed to do to get him to convince the woman to heal him. He hoped that his fake sob-story would help in some way. Matilda, who didn't even take a glance at Jeff, stared JB deep in the eyes, her pupils large and black from the darkness of the room. Finally, she grumbled something and set the pies down on the floor, throwing up her hands immediately after.

"Alright! I will try my best to increase chances of restoring his code, but it will require some time. In fact, as I estimate currently, this may take...seven days of solitary reinstallation. This means that you, butthead," she said, looking disapprovingly at Jeff, catching his avoiding eye, "and I are going to have to spend a week together inside my subconscious so that I will be able to heal your leg without any possible chance of you being, well, restarted."

Jeff groaned on the inside at the very idea of having to spend a whole week with a woman like this. He was barely able to handle keeping his mouth shut during the seven minutes they'd been inside her stuffy little shack. Matilda was quite displeased with the look on his face and so she added,

"Or perhaps you want to just be a miserable cripple for the rest of your life? Listen, Mr. Ironblock, I might be a miracle worker, but sometimes you just need to suck it up and give me some credit. I'm not used to dealing with viral injuries, just the occasional Creeper accident or naughty wolf bites. I want to hear an answer: yes or no?"

Jeff paused for a second, weighing the pros and the cons. If he agreed, he'd be able to get his leg back, but he'd have to spend a week in agonizing silence inside a cranky old lady's mind. But, if he didn't agree to it, he'd have to hobble around for the rest of his life; this factor itself convinced him that it had to be done.

"Okay, I'll do it." spoke a halfhearted Jeff.

* * *

Auconi opened the door to the house with his left hand, cringing at the 3rd degree burn on his right forefinger. He entered and looked around—no sign of Darcy anywhere. The house was absolutely silent. That was strange...Darcy usually made a lot of noise. All the time. He couldn't go a minute without bursting open with his Australian gibberish.

His second guess was Darcy was up in the room where they'd put Morgan. He was probably gazing at her dreamily, waiting for her to wake up so he could get his Australian on. Auconi sighed on the inside and headed up the right staircase, walked out into the hall and then turned left to face Morgan's new bedroom.

He peeked in through the doorway and, sure enough, Darcy was there, sitting on the bedpost with one leg crossed over the other, most likely waiting for her awakening. Auconi opened the door quietly and just stood there in the doorway with a single raised eyebrow.

"Darcy, what the fudge are you doing up here still?"

Darcy, whose smirk remained eminent as it was, hardly even glanced at Auconi.

"Is grinning like a shot fox a crime?"

Auconi cringed and muttered,

"Don't...say...shot frickin fox. Nobody knows what you're talking about."

In response, Darcy merely shrugged and returned his attention to the sleeping Morgan. Auconi was partially having a hard time blaming Darcy for staring; Morgan could not have looked any more adorable than she did, her face stuffed in the pillow, her lips formed into a smile. There was a silent pause.

"Just don't make me have to watch you. Can I legitimately trust you alone with a girl? When she's asleep?" asked Auconi, seriousness in his voice.

Darcy waved a hand with a look of cocky assurance.

"Mate, you just gotta trust me."

If there were any way to convince him of his trustworthiness, Darcy should have been able to figure one out by now. Obviously, he hadn't, because Auconi trusted him less than anyone. Of course, he didn't know too many people in the first place, but even so.

In fact, the only reason he did leave the room was because he didn't want to talk to Darcy at all.

God, Darcy irked him.

* * *

**GAAAAHHHH! FINALLY! This chapter was KILLING me! You have no idea how much time I spent trying to figure out how to end it.**

**Now then, for the interesting stuff! QAA!**

**To Doughbelly: *clones master***

Doughbelly: *leaps happily towards clone Quinn*

**To Norman: Witchcraft may sound evil, but magic is neutral, neither good nor bad. Vanessa has a strong spirit angle to the lighter side of the sphere. Give your support and her spirit will strengthen to the side of the Light. And historically, the people killed for being witches most likely weren't. It's just their practices for medicines were viewed as, well, witchcraft.**

Norman: *pretends to be old man* "Back in my day, we burned ALL the witches!" *laughs* "Yes, I know that movie reference. Just because I live farther into the future than you all, that doesn't mean I don't know old movies. Anyway, I know this is all according to Farixz's plans, but does that mean it's the best thing to let her go and do magic wherever?"

**To Everyone: What do you do in your free time besides destroying the universe(Glitch).**

Norman: "I still enjoy playing Minecraft to this day, but back in the normal world I don't have that much free time due to my job's demands. Being the head of a computer software company does take a toll on your recreational time."

Liz: "I love being out in nature, enjoying the sights of the world, just being OUT there! I'm definitely an outdoorsy kind of person."

Kelsey: "I've already died on Earth, so I'm stuck here in Minecraft. I just like being with friends, I guess. ...I wish Mark were here so bad, though." *pouts*

Adrian: "Same as Kelsey; ah'm stuck in Minecraft. Ah've got ter git another quest besides this one 'ere. Ah'm sick o' that damn virus."

Astrid: "Pranking, hands down! Whenever I'm not doing something productive, which, up until recently, I never was, I would pull pranks on people. BIG pranks. You saw what kind of genius I had in _VOiD _when we pranked Lucas SO GOOD! I mean, he was actually the Glitch, but that just makes it cooler. I pranked the Glitch! Ha!"

Vanessa: "You honestly do not know the answer to that question?" *buries nose in _Moby Dick _and reads*

Jeff: "I used to spend most of my free time either working in my little armory, training for my next fight in the arena, or if I could help it, spend time with my family. Of course, that's a luxury I won't be able to have any more, so..."

Mason: "Mushrooms. Mushrooms is the answer. Always."

JB: "I like to take long walks through the jungle. In my area, we never really had trouble with hostile mobs, so the jungle was pretty serene all the time."

Auconi: "I like mining a lot, but even I need some fresh air sometimes."

Darcy: "If I can help it, I'm flirting with the Aussie girls! Otherwise, I like to eat, so I'll grab myself a quick bikkie and a butcher. ...What? Just cuz' I look like an ankle biter doesn't mean I can't have some turps every once in a while."

The Glitch: _"WHAT IS THIS?! ARE YOU TRYING TO TELL ME THAT I, LORD GLITCH, MAY NOT REPLY TO THIS INQUIRY?! YOU ARE GREATLY MISTAKEN, IMPUDENT WORM! I ALWAYS HAVE A SAY! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"_

**To Doughbelly: I will play with you, now I have dragon-sized fun toys. :D**

Doughbelly: *grabs toys from you, carries them over to clone Quinn; he'd rather play with his "master"*

**That's that! Now for another snippet leading off of the last cliff-hanger in _Sugar Lords!_**

* * *

Pixelized could fly pretty fast, but he wasn't the fastest flier of the group; he suddenly wished he was Luvr, because she was the absolute fastest—even more so than Pastrinator64. This THING was coming up behind him, gaining on him quicker than he'd like.

He could no longer contact Pikale, either. The gigantic red monster behind him was confusing him, for it somehow possessed the ability to separate him and Pikale even at the spiritual level they had. How could it do that? It would have to share souls with them, or something.

_"Damn it, this isn't Soul Eater!" _thought Pixelized.

Without warning, Pixelized felt a massive gust of hot wind flow around him and he barely even had time to look back before the alien's mouth opened up before him, oozing with disgusting saliva.

No time to react, the gaping maw was so huge that when it closed down, Pixelized was already trapped inside the cavern-like chops. Instantly, a sickly smell enveloped him, making it harder and harder to breathe.

He got slammed around a ton, falling through one big passageway, ramming into a handful of slimy, sticky and/or spiny surfaces before plunging into a cold, syrupy pond, deep in the dark. At least it didn't smell inside of here. Still, he wished he'd payed more attention in Expensivecorn9's lessons on the Hikari Bīmu technique. At any rate, he'd be able to see where he was.

"Pixelized?"

Pixelized jumped so hard that he accidently splashed a bit of the thick liquid pond in his eyes. He expected it to burn, but strangely enough, it did not feel even the slightest bit painful.

"Pikale?"

* * *

**They're in the belly of the beast! Literally. XD**

**Again, though, I apologize for the huge delay...again...again, again. Man, I've got to keep better track of my time!**

**Well, that's all for now! I hope you enjoyed chapter number six, and I'll see you all LATER!**

**This is Pastrinator64, your fellow writer and reader, signing out!**

***throws sugar bomb and disappears behind its cloud of fine white sugar***

**..Goodbye for now...**

**~Pastrinator64 [~]**


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